The international community may have its eyes on the civil war in Syria, but in neighboring Iraq, sectarian divisions are escalating as well. The month of May was the deadliest month in Iraq in five years, with 1,045 people killed.
Violence in Iraq has accelerated since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'a-led government cracked down on Sunni protesters in April. Since then, car bombs have once again been a daily occurrence in and around Baghdad.
On Monday, Iraqi activist Zainab Salbi and the Huffington Post's David Wood joined NOW with Alex Wagner to discuss the growing sectarian conflict in Iraq and the influence of the violence next door in Syria.
"Sunnis in Iraq feel very marginalized and they want to be included in the government," Salbi said. The tension on the streets in Iraq is very political, Salbi said, claiming Iraqis were "scared of going back into the bombings of 2006 and 2008."