[JURIST] The last Iraqi daytime curfew [JURIST report] was lifted in Baghdad Monday after five days of sectarian bloodshed, but tensions in the country still threaten to bring civil war. Iraqi officials announced an end to the curfew to let people go back to work, but an overnight curfew remains in force throughout the country. Wide-ranging curfews were imposed by authorities last week in an attempt to subdue a wave of violence that followed the bombing of the Askariya shrine [Telegraph report], one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites.

Since the bombing, Shiite leaders have been urged by the Bush administration not to back out of discussions aimed an including minority Sunnis in a national unity government, after the Sunnis took part in US-backed elections [JURIST news archive] in December for the first time. AP has more.