There is no end, it seems, to Nouri Al Maliki's problems. Not long after he survived the David Petraeus-Ryan Crocker show in Washington, his own survival as the prime minister of Iraq is again at stake.
One of the ruling coalition's biggest partners, the political movement of cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, has withdrawn from the alliance. Al Maliki now has the support of less than half the members of the parliament. But this is not all.
The latest kidnappings and assassinations suggest Iraq has become a ground of "proxy wars", according to intelligence reports. Iraqi officials say Iranian agents are behind the kidnapping of a British computer expert and his bodyguards from the Finance Ministry three weeks ago.
US forces continue to arrest Iranian diplomats and officers across Iraq - a proxy war waged in Iraq between Iran and its Western adversaries.
Iran, under pressure from the West over its nuclear programme, is trying to negotiate its way out of the standoff by showing it has muscle in the neighbouring war-torn country.
It can provide arms and finance to armed groups. It can ask Al Sadr to pull out of the ruling coalition to probably bring down the government and make George W. Bush's life in Iraq so miserable he would not think of going after the Tehran regime.
And it is not just Iran. Other neighbouring states use Iraq for similar aims. Some are in fact involved directly in supporting - or at least facilitating - terrorism in Iraq.
The security problems in Iraq, therefore, will not be solved by another surge or by even hundred of thousands more troops. Stability can only be achieved if Iraq's neighbours quit using the country as an arena to wage their own wars. They have to stop using Iraqis as a human shield to protect their own.
