'US opened Pandora’s box in Iraq, regional sectarian violence almost impossible to stop now’

Sectarian violence unleashed after the US disintegration of Iraq is linked to the Syrian conflict and the death toll will only climb since extremist elements hijacked the sectarian instability in the region, political analyst Chris Bambery told RT.

“Everyone in Iraq must be terrified that the situation in Syria is spilling over into Iraq” Bambery said as Tuesday’s attacks in the country kill over 40, a day after over 70 people were murdered, escalating fears of all-out sectarian war between minority Sunnis and majority Shiites.

In the biggest incident on Tuesday, a car bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in Baghdad killing 11 people and injuring 21.

In a separate incident, a bomb outside a cafe in southern Baghdad killed six more and wounded 18.

A decade after the hanging of Saddam Hussein, Iraq is bitterly divided between the Sunnis, Kurds and Shiites and with no power-sharing deal insight, violence is again on the rise.

“It is based on the decision by the Americans when they occupied Iraq to separate Iraq off into these three areas,” Bambery told the viewers.

It is also being fueled by the Syrian conflict where predominantly Sunni insurgents are fighting President Assad. Another Syrian neighbor, Lebanon is seeing Shiite Hezbollah forces fighting alongside Assad's troops, a minority Shiite-linked Alawite sect.

Overall it is estimated by the UN that over 700 people died in Iraq in April, a number Bambery warns will only rise as “we have now seen an alliance of al-Qaeda elements in Syria and al-Qaeda elements in Iraq, who are involved in sectarian violence in both countries.”