Surge of violence in Iraq

In the worst bloodshed in Iraq since 2008, renewed fighting and bombing put the number of deaths in the first month of 2014 at over 800. 

Militants took open control in Fallujah and Ramadi, and government forces began shelling neighborhoods. Car bombs and other bombs targeted both Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad, Mosul and towns near Baqubah, and a major bridge out of Baghdad was damaged. 

The UN refugee agency estimates that more than 140,000 people have recently fled their homes in and around Ramadi in Al Anbar province.