According to reports, attacks in Baghdad and North Iraq killed 27 people on January 16 as hundreds attended the funeral of a Sunni MP who died in a suicide attack a day earlier, amid a political crisis engulfing Iraq. The latest violence, which struck mostly in disputed territory in north Iraq and was the deadliest so far this year, comes with Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki facing several protests hardening opposition against his rule and calls for his ouster from many of his erstwhile government partners. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which also left more than 220 people wounded, but Sunni militants often carry out waves of violence in a bid to destabilise the government and push the country back towards the sectarian violence that blighted it from 2005 to 2008. 1

• 1. “Wave of Iraq attacks kill 27,” Khaleej Times, January 16, 2013, at http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=/data/middlee...