UN chief warns of massive sectarian Iraq violence

GENEVA (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is warning that sectarian violence could blow up to huge proportions in Iraq and beyond as Iraq’s instability deepens.

At a news conference Tuesday, Ban said he is deeply concerned about Iraq’s rapidly deteriorating stability, including reports of mass summary executions that the U.N. rights chief has called likely war crimes. Those atrocities and terrorist attacks are taking place as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, an al-Qaida-inspired Sunni Muslim militant group, looks to link areas under its control on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.