BAGHDAD – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki pointed a finger on Saturday at the civil war in neighboring Syria for the return of sectarian strife to Iraq, as a five-day wave of violence has killed 215 people.



Sectarian strife “came back to Iraq, because it began in another place in this region,” Maliki said in televised remarks.



In Iraq, Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence, which peaked in 2006 and 2006, killed tens of thousands. This week, 215 people have died in a wave of violence.



“Sectarianism is evil, and the wind of sectarianism does not need a license to cross from a country to another, because if it begins in a place, it will move to another place,” Maliki said.



“Strife is knocking on the doors of everyone, and no one will survive if it enters, because there is a wind behind it, and money, and plans,” he added, two days after warning of the danger of a return to “sectarian civil war.”



A wave of violence began on Tuesday when security forces moved in against Sunni anti-government protesters near the northern Sunni Arab town of Hawijah, sparking clashes that left 53 people dead.



Subsequent unrest, much of it apparently linked to the Hawijah clashes, killed dozens more and brought the death toll to 215 by Saturday. – AFP