Is Iraq Headed Toward Civil War?

07:48

May 31, 2013

Baghdad municipality workers clean up while restaurant staff react after a parked car bomb exploded near the popular restaurant in the Ur neighborhood in northern Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 30, 2013. (Khalid Mohammed/AP)

More than 1,000 people have been killed in violence in Iraq the last two months.

With more than 700 dead, April was the deadliest month there since June 2008 — around the time the U.S. troop surge ended in Iraq.

It was that surge that U.S. officials say tamped down what was looking then like a civil war.

U.S. combat troops pulled out of Iraq in December 2011, so is Iraq again on the verge of civil war?

"This kind of violence really hasn't stopped for the last 10 years," Rami Ruhayem of the BBC in Baghdad told Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti. "It's not really new."

However, one thing that is new, Ruhayem said: rumors of sectarian killings.

"That would be new, because we haven't seen that since 2006, 2007," he said. "No proof yet, but rumors are enough to scare people."

Guest:

Rami Ruhayem, BBC reporter in Baghdad. He tweets @ramiruhayem.

This segment aired on May 31, 2013.