BAGHDAD — Jassim Hussein follows the news. He's well aware that violence in his country is creeping up again, and he's worried.
Not that you'd know it judging by the way he spent Saturday night: out with his wife celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary at a popular open-air creamery and cafe in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood, their three children in tow.
"Yes, we're concerned. We feel it inside," said Hussein, a government administrator. "But that doesn't mean life stops."
Hussein and his family were far from the only ones out Saturday night. In fact, Hassan's Creamery was packed with couples holding hands, with girlfriends gossiping and laughing, with children chasing each other across the cafe's brightly lit courtyard.
"I think people just want to enjoy the security while they can," Hussein said. "A year ago we couldn't do this. Maybe soon it will be that way again."
Over the past two months, Iraq has witnessed a sharp increase in deadly bombings, and there is widespread worry that last year's security gains may be unraveling.
So far, fears of renewed violence don't appear to be changing habits here. Even at night, restaurants, cafes and parks are still busy, a far cry from 2007, when most ventured out only for essential reasons.
Still, Iraqis say they're nervous about the upswing in violence and what it may mean. They say they're worried things will get worse, concerned that Iraq's security forces aren't ready to stand on their own, and afraid that the country's ethnic, sectarian and political factions are still far from reconciliation.
Iraqis are acutely aware that large-scale bombings aimed at civilians, and especially at Shiite Muslims, are on the rise. Many said last month's explosions are reminiscent of the violence of early 2006 that sparked Iraq's sectarian war.
"I think the security is starting to go backwards," said Hussein Falih, a 37-year-old police officer. "The situation on the streets feels different, even if we are not behaving different. We are on alert."
Falih's fears are far from unfounded. By several measures, April was the bloodiest month Iraq has seen this year.
In Baghdad alone, more than 200 people died in attacks last month, compared with 99 in March and 46 in February, according to a McClatchy count.
The last time McClatchy recorded more than 200 civilian deaths in one month in the capital was more than a year ago, in March 2008.
At least 520 people were injured in attacks in Baghdad in April, the most since November.
Eighteen U.S. troops died across Iraq last month, the highest toll in seven months.
Most of April's bombings targeted large crowds of Shiites. On April 6 a series of seven explosions killed at least 32 people in Baghdad. Back-to-back bombings the following two days killed at least 15 in the mostly Shiite district of Kadhemiyah. More than 50 died in a suicide attack targeting Shiite pilgrims in Diyala province April 23. Roughly the same number were killed April 29 in three explosions in the east Baghdad Shiite slum of Sadr City.
Publicly, U.S. and Iraqi officials have said the renewed violence is not an indication that recent security gains are reversing.
Maj. Gen. David Perkins, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, told reporters here this week that American commanders don't see cause for alarm primarily because recent attacks have not yet triggered revenge killings, the return of Shiite militias or sectarian-motivated violence.
Perkins said the U.S. military believes al Qaida in Iraq is to blame for most of April's bombings. He said extremists are attempting to incite sweeping Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence by carrying out high-profile attacks that target Shiite civilians. So far the military hasn't seen signs that al Qaida's plan is working, Perkins said.
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