Iraq: After a peaceful evening of toy shopping for his younger cousins, Hussein Maytham and his family were passing the palm tree grove close to their home when their car struck a bomb placed on the moonlit road.
Maytham, 16, mumbled weakly from his hospital bed, his pale arms covered in brown shrapnel. "I only remember the explosion," he said. The attack happened earlier this month in the village of Hazanieh, which has a majority of Shiites.
The teenager was thrown out of the car by the explosion, but his family—his parents, an aunt, and three cousins—were killed in the ensuing firestorm. Two other people were killed, according to the locals, when gunmen hiding nearby in irrigation canals opened fire.
This is the most recent of several attacks that have occurred over the past month in the province of Diyala in central Iraq, which is north and east of Baghdad. According to security officials, unidentified attackers have killed at least 19 civilians, including two people who were specifically targeted.
The ethnically and religiously diverse province's communities are being pitted against one another by the violence. It also raises concerns about the sustainability of the relative stability and calm that have characterised much of Iraq in the years following the defeat of Daesh.
According to Mohanad Adnan, a political analyst and partner at the Roya Development Group, Iraq as a whole has moved past the circumstances that led to the rise of Daesh and the widespread, bloody sectarian violence that broke out after the US-led invasion 20 years ago.
However, some regions of the nation, including Diyala, continue to be tense as sporadic waves of violence reopen old wounds. Adnan said, "There are a few villages, particularly in Diyala, where they haven't moved past what happened in the past.
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At least one incident of violence in Diyala, according to officials, locals, and analysts, appears to be a sectarian retaliation by Shiites against Sunnis for a Daesh-claimed attack. As competing militias and their tribal and political allies, who control the province, compete for influence and lucrative racketeering networks, they claim that other killings were committed by Shiites against Shiites. Diyala, which borders both Iran and the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq, is a key route for drug smuggling.
In 2015, the province was liberated from Daesh by the Iranian-backed Badr Organization, a state-sanctioned militia within the Popular Mobilization Forces with a political wing. Since then, it has consolidated its control over a number of Shiite political parties, the paramilitaries they support, and Sunni organisations.
Despite the fact that the majority of Sunni residents who were uprooted during the fight against Daesh have returned to the province, they claim that because of their alleged ties to extremists, both authorities and neighbours frequently view them with suspicion.
When group remnants carry out attacks on citizens or security personnel, it frequently sets off a chain reaction of reprisals.
Security officials report that nine people, including women and children, were killed in the Sunni village of Jalaylah in a horrific attack in late February, two months after they had been held accountable for allowing a Daesh attack on a nearby village.
Awadh Al-Azzawi, a villager, claimed that the attackers roamed the area in broad daylight. "They wore no masks. They had clear faces, he said. Residents claim that the attack was carried out as retaliation by members of the nearby Shiite village of Albu Bali, where Daesh killed nine people in December.
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They claim that the perpetrators are members of local militias who use state-issued weapons. Officials from the armed groups' security services declined to comment.
