A series of recent attacks in Iraq claimed hundreds of lives in just two days.

The first was on Friday, when two people blew themselves up at a Shia muslim shrine in Baghdad as people arrived to pray. That attack killed 60 people and injured 125.

Just a day before, more than 90 people were killed in two other attacks. One in the centre of Baghdad where police were handing out aid to displaced, and another which targeted Iranian religious pilgrims in Diyala province, north east of Baghdad.

This recent increase in violence is sparking fears the country could return to a situation where such attacks happened almost daily.
 
Is Iraq descending back into lawlessness? But why now? Is it a sign of the US troop surge unravelling, just weeks before the start of a planned withdrawal. Or could it be followers of the Awakening Councils, who may feel disillusioned with the Iraqi government?

Presenter Kamahl Santamaria is joined by David Mack, a scholar at the Middle East Institute and a former US Ambassador, Saleh Al Mutlaq, an Iraqi Memebr of Parliament, and Faleh Abdel Jabbar, the director of the Iraq Institute for Strategic Studies.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Sunday, April 26, 2009.