So, that worked out well

With more than 700 people killed in just 30 days, April was the deadliest month in Iraq in five years. According to the United Nations Mission in the country, 712 Iraqis lost their lives in acts of terrorism and acts of violence in the month of April. Nearly 600 of the dead were civilians.

The string of attacks continued in the first days of May. On Friday, a bomb outside a Sunni mosque in Rashidiya killed at least seven, the Associated Press reported. In a separate incident, nine police officers and four militants were killed during clashes Thursday evening in the northern city of Mosul.

The new wave of violence spread over large parts of Iraq in the wake of a deadly raid by security forces on a Sunni protest encampment in the city of Hawija, north of Baghdad, earlier in April. The brazen assault by the army and police against the protesters -- Sunnis who were demonstrating against the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki -- set in motion a string of counterattacks by militants against Shiites and security forces. Shiite militants have returned the assaults by bombing Sunni targets.

Yet tension had been building long before the clashes in Hawija. “The situation has been deteriorating for the last two years, but particularly since December tensions have risen,” Human Rights Watch’s Erin Evers told The Huffington Post.