Fallujah Violence

The protests which began last month with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki moved against Sunni Minister of Finance Rafi al-Issawi have taken a violent turn in Fallujah:

Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and three others were abducted in Fallujah today as hundreds of mourners gathered in the city for the funeral of protesters killed during a shooting by army troops a day earlier, according to officials.

The attacks and kidnappings appeared to be in retaliation for the deaths of protesters in clashes on Friday, and are likely to further strain tensions between Iraq's minority Sunnis and the Shiite-led central government...

Iraqi soldiers opened fire on Friday on stone-throwing demonstrators near Fallujah, killing at least five, according to local authorities. Two other soldiers were killed on Friday in apparent payback for the protesters' deaths...

The protesters are demanding the release of detainees and the cancellation of a tough counterterrorism law and other policies they believe overwhelmingly target Sunnis. Many link their cause with the broader Arab Spring and are calling for the downfall of the government altogether.

As long as these protests have gone on, the danger exists that this violence will spread, especially if the sectarian lens through which  many Iraqis view regional politics leads them to draw parallels with the violence of the Assad regime in neighboring Syria.