At least 92 people have been killed and more than 350 others injured in militant attacks mainly targeting security forces and Shia Muslims across Iraq on Sunday, according to media reports citing local officials.
The first one in the series was an attack on an Army base north of Baghdad in which 11 soldiers were killed. It was followed by another attack on a military base in Dujail, north of the Iraqi capital in which at least ten soldiers died.
Later in the day, at least 15 people were killed in three car bomb attacks in the predominantly Shia neighborhoods of Baghdad. Nine people died in yet another car bomb explosion in the city on Sunday evening.
Separately, seven people, mainly fresh police recruits, were killed in a car bomb attack targeting the state-run North Oil Company near the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, where another roadside car bomb explosion left at least seven dead.
Also, two car bomb attacks targeting a Shia shrine in the country's south-east killed at least 14 people and injured more than 60. One person was killed in a bomb explosion outside the French honorary consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya. Similar attacks were also reported from Basra, Baquba, Samarra and Tuz Khormato.
Although no group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's waves of attacks, Iraqi authorities blamed al-Qaeda-linked Sunni militant groups. Analysts believe that marginalization of the Sunni minority by the Shia-dominated government may be a major contributing factor for the increasing number of militant strikes the war-ravaged contry has been witnessing in recent months.
Sunday's attacks came hours after fugitive Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi was sentenced to death in absentia by a Baghdad court. Hashemi, a senior leader of the the secular but Sunni-dominated Iraqiya Party headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, was accused of running death squads that targeted Shia pilgrims as well as government and security officials from 2005 to 2011.
Hashemi, who fled the country immediately after a warrant was issued for his arrest in December, has denied the charges. He had earlier refused to stand trial in Baghdad and rejected the charges against him as politically motivated. Nevertheless, the Iraqi government claims that three suspects, identified as Hashemi's bodyguards, have linked the Vice-President to killings and attacks on several Iraqi government and security officials.
Hashemi had sought refuge in Iraq's northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, which has its own government and security forces, soon after the Iraqi government issued the arrest warrant on terrorism charges on December 19. He was subsequently allowed by the Kurdistan government to visit Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, where is currently said to be based.
Although Baghdad repeatedly requested the Kurdistan government as well as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to extradite Hashemi to face trial in his home country, the requests were rejected by those governments. Further, the Iraqiya Party and its Sunni allies claim the charges against Hashemi are politically motivated and accused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia politician, of monopolizing power by retaining key posts in the coalition government for his Shia bloc.
When compared to the deadly sectarian violence witnessed in 2006 and 2007, violence has dropped across Iraq in recent years. Nevertheless, the oil-rich Middle East country still witnesses frequent militant attacks, mostly sectarian in nature, on a regular basis.
Such incidents have gone up drastically after U.S. combat forces left the country late last year in line with a bilateral security agreement that required withdrawal of all American troops from the country by the end of 2011.
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