Is Iraq falling apart again?

With sectarian bombings and shootings on the rise, more people were killed in Iraq in April than in any month since June 2008, the United Nations reported Thursday. A total of 712 people died and another 1,633 were injured in terrorism attacks, fighting, and other violence, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq said. Most of the victims, including 434 of those killed, were civilians. The violence is still below the peak seen in 2006, when 2,000 to 3,000 people were killed every month, but, with Sunni Muslim insurgents and al Qaeda affiliates launching daily attacks to undermine the Shiite-led government, the aftermath of the costly and still-controversial Iraq war risks getting even worse.

The death toll reflects months of increasing tensions between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government and Sunni Arabs, who complain that they have been marginalized since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. "The most urgent task today is to tamp down the flames," the International Crisis Group, a think tank in Belgium, said recently, by integrating Sunnis into a truly representative political system. If Maliki's government can't bring Sunnis into the fold, says Mohammed Tawfeeq at CNN, Iraqi leaders and foreign diplomats fear the feuding between Sunnis and Shiites "could escalate and bring a return of a full-blown sectarian war.

There's no sugar-coating what's at stake, analysts say. "Iraq is spiraling out of control," says Emma Sky at Foreign Policy. Sunnis began taking to the streets in December following the arrests of Finance Minister Rafi Issawi's bodyguards. With elections looming, Maliki chose to use the crisis to "distract attention away from the lack of services and rampant corruption," presenting himself as the defender of the Shia instead of dealing with the Sunnis' frustration with their alienation, Sky says. Sunni politicians responded in kind, railing against government oppression to rally voters behind them:

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But Maliki isn't the only one who needs to step up to pull Iraq back from the brink. Iraqis made progress toward genuine political pluralism in 2007 and 2008 when, as security spread during the surge, Sunnis were encouraged to work with the government, says Ryan Crocker, who served as U.S. ambassador in Baghdad from 2007 to 2009, in The Washington Post. "Sunni and Shiite leaders opted to resolve their differences through accommodation rather than through violence. Their commitment survived the difficult aftermath of the 2010 parliamentary elections, in which no one party won a clear mandate." It's up to all sides — including the U.S. — to dial back the tensions.