Violence in Iraq soared in 2013 to levels not seen in years, U.N. officials reported this week, stoking concerns that the country is descending into the kind of sectarian bloodshed that gripped the country before the U.S. troop surge. 

The United Nations said 7,818 civilians were killed in 2013, a return to 2008 levels. The startling figure follows warnings from lawmakers and analysts that the violence threatens to undo hard-fought gains by the United States. “The level of indiscriminate violence in Iraq is unacceptable,” U.N. Special Representative Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement, calling on the Iraqi government to curb “this infernal circle.”

U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq at the end of 2011. In the years immediately before and after that withdrawal, the level of violence remained relatively steady — and by Iraq standards, relatively low. The troop surge and other factors were credited with curbing the bloodshed from its 2004-2007 highs.

But the 2013 death toll is roughly double what it had been in recent years.

See more on this story at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/02/civilian-death-toll-in-iraq-highest-in-years-fueling-concern-about-al-qaeda/

CLARK KENT @http://americasff.wpengine.com