Here’s the latest graph of killings in Iraq from Iraq Body Count. We’re back up to death rates comparable to 2003-4, certainly worse than things have been for a few years.
IBC summarizes the events of the year:
The year started with protests and rising discontent. The Sunnis demanded reforms, while the government of Nouri al-Maliki abandoned any efforts to be cross sectarian, targeting Sunni politicians, arresting and interrogating and forcing some into exile. After the April 23 protest turned violent and the Iraqi Security Forces attacked protesters, killing 49 of them, the retaliation resulted in the number of civilian deaths tripling in the next 6 months. While 1,900 civilians were killed between October 2012 and March 2013, 6,300 were killed between April and October 2013.
I’d just add that the current rise is particularly worrying, in that it comes in winter. Iraq’s heaviest violence has tended to take place in summer. So if things are this bad even in winter, we can expect them to get much worse come summer.