Analysis: Bombings push Iraq closer to abyss

BAGHDAD, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The bloodiest bombings in Baghdad since the U.S. invasion in 2003, and the reprisals that swiftly followed, show that Iraq's sectarian conflict may be too far gone for leaders to stop, even if they want to.

The killings of some 250 people in just a few days last week marked a "high-water mark", analysts said. It demonstrated with savage clarity how little control Iraq's government exercises, with a security force accused of sectarian bias and a series of peace plans doing little to slow the pace of killing.

"This violence shows that sectarian bitterness between Sunnis and Shi'ites has gone deep down into ordinary people. They are totally polarised," said Mohamed el-Sayed Said of al- Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.

Despite a three-day curfew, lifted on Monday, and appeals for calm from Iraqi leaders across the sectarian divide, mortars crashed down on different Baghdad neighbourhoods on Sunday. Fears ran high that Iraq was nearing boiling point.

"Iraq is moving very fast towards the point of no return," former prime minister Iyad Allawi warned. "The shadow of death and destruction is everywhere. We are all responsible, including me, for this situation."

While much of the violence has been blamed on militias tied to political parties in the government and Sunni insurgents, there are signs that rogue gunmen are operating outside any political control and pursuing their own agendas.

Ordinary Iraqis are retreating into religiously segregated neighbourhoods and increasingly turning to militias for protection, placing little faith in the ability of Iraq's U.S.- trained security forces -- ill-equipped and accused of colluding with sectarian death squads -- to keep them safe.

"Sinking into bloody violence is an expected consequence when you have people seeking the protection of militias rather than government forces," Baghdad lawyer Ali Nasir said.

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