http://news.netster.com/story.asp?id=D8IP0G2G1
Shiite-Sunni Violence Kills Dozens in Iraq
3:54 AM EST July 10, 2006
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq
Masked Shiite gunmen roamed through west Baghdad's Jihad neighborhood
Sunday, dragging Sunnis from their cars, picking them out on the street and
killing them in a rampage that police said killed 41 people in a dramatic
escalation of sectarian violence.
Hours later, two car bombs exploded near a Shiite mosque in the city's
north, killing 17 people and wounding 38 in what appeared to be a reprisal
attack, police said.
On Monday, two car bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in a Shiite area
of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least seven people and wounding 17, police and
hospital officials said.
The first bomb struck a car repair shop on the edge of the Shiite slum of
Sadr City, wounding at least six people, police Lt. Bilal Ali said.
A suicide car bomber then drove into the crowd that had gathered at the
scene, killing seven people and wounding 11, according to officials from two
hospitals that received the victims.
Meanwhile, black-clad Shiite militiamen manned checkpoints on roads into
most major Shiite neighborhoods to guard against revenge attacks, as scattered
clashes occurred across the Iraqi capital.
Sunni leaders expressed outrage over the killings, and President Jalal
Talabani, a Kurd, appealed for calm, warning that the nation stood "in front of
a dangerous precipice."
Presidential security adviser Wafiq al-Samaraie told Al-Jazeera
television that "we are at the gates of civil war" unless "exceptional
measures" are taken.
A senior government official, Haidar Majid, contested the police figures,
saying late Sunday that only nine people died in Jihad. Police Lt. Mohammed
Khayoun insisted the figure of 41 was correct _ with 24 bodies taken to Yarmouk
hospital and 17 to the city morgue. There was no way to reconcile the
discrepancy.
Regardless, the brazen attack was likely to further enflame Shiite-Sunni
tensions and undermine public confidence in Iraq's new unity government. It
also raises new questions about the effectiveness of the Iraqi police and army
to curb sectarian violence in the capital.
The trouble started about 10 a.m. when several carloads of gunmen drove
into the Jihad area along the main road to Baghdad International Airport,
police and witnesses said. The gunmen stopped cars, checked passengers'
identification cards and shot dead those with Sunni names.
Masked gunmen wearing black clothes roamed the streets, abducting Sunnis
whose bodies were found later scattered throughout the religiously mixed
neighborhood, an Interior Ministry official said. He spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.
U.S. and Iraqi forces sealed off the area, and residents said American
troops using loudspeakers announced a two-day curfew. Black smoke from burning
tires wafted through the streets.
Another policeman, Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq, also said 41 bodies had been
collected and taken to hospitals. Some Sunni clerics put the death toll at more
than 50 in Jihad, a once prosperous neighborhood of handsome villas owned by
officials of Saddam Hussein's security services.
Residents contacted by telephone told of gunmen systematically rounding
up and massacring Sunni men.
A Shiite shopkeeper said he saw heavily armed men pull four people out of
a car, blindfold them and force them to stand to the side while they grabbed
five others out of a minivan.
"After ten minutes, the gunmen took the nine people to a place a few
meters (yards) away from the market and opened fire on them," Saad Jawad
al-Azzawi said.
Wissam Mohammad al-Ani, a Sunni, said three gunmen stopped him as he was
talking toward a bus stop and demanded his identification. They let him go
after he produced a fake ID with a Shiite name, but they seized two young men
standing nearby.
Police and Shiite leaders speculated the rampage was carried out in
retaliation for a Saturday night car bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed two
people and wounded nine.
Clashes also broke out between gunmen and Iraqi police in at least three
neighborhoods across the capital, police and residents said. Three Shiite
militiamen were killed in fighting with security forces in one of them, police
said.
The spokesman for a Sunni clerical association, Mohammed Beshar
al-Faydhi, blamed the Jihad attack on the Mahdi Army militia, led by radical
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Faydhi told Al-Jazeera television that he had
documents to prove his allegation.
Al-Sadr denied responsibility and called on both Shiites and Sunnis to
"join hands for the sake of Iraq's independence and stability." He assured Vice
President Tariq al-Hashimi, leader of the largest Sunni Arab party, that he
would punish any of his militiamen if they were involved.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has promised to disband Shiite
militias and other armed groups, which are blamed for much of the sectarian
violence. On Friday, Iraqi troops backed by U.S. jets raided a Shiite militia
stronghold in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, killing and wounding dozens of
people.
But militias have flourished in large part because of the inability of
the police, the Iraqi army and coalition forces to guarantee security. Many in
the Shiite majority believe the militias are their only protection against
Sunni extremists such as al-Qaida in Iraq, responsible for many car bombings
and suicide attacks against Shiite civilians.
The violence is likely to complicate U.S. and Iraqi efforts to encourage
disaffected Sunnis to abandon the Sunni-dominated insurgency and join
mainstream politics so U.S. troops can begin to go home.
Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie, a Sunni, described the Jihad
attack as "a real and ugly massacre," and blamed Iraqi security forces, which
are widely believed to have been infiltrated by Shiite militias.
"There are officers who instead of being in charge should be questioned
and referred to judicial authorities," al-Zubaie told Al-Jazeera TV. "Jihad is
witnessing a catastrophic crime."
The prime minister's office quickly distanced itself from al-Zubaie's
comments, saying in a statement that they "do not represent the government's
point of view."
Sunni politician Alaa Maki also blamed Shiite extremists, claiming they
were out to wipe out the Sunni Arab minority.
"We demand the presidency, the prime minister and the parliament stand
against this agenda," Maki said. "The situation is very serious. If it
deteriorates, all of us will be losers."
Also Sunday, an American soldier died in a "non-combat related incident,"
the U.S. command said without giving further details.
In the western city of Ramadi, a car bomb exploded next to a U.S. convoy,
wounding four American soldiers, the military said. The attack occurred as the
convoy headed to the government center in the city, an insurgent hotbed 70
miles west of Baghdad.
___
Associated Press writers Kim Gamel, Bassem Mroue, Qassim Abdul-Zahra,
Bushra Juhi, Sameer N. Yacoub and Qais al-Bashir contributed to this report.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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