Reuters: Baghdad toll at 53 as sectarian attacks go on

[PhilipShore]

Reuters
Baghdad toll at 53 as sectarian attacks go on
Feb 23, 2006

http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-23T074704Z_01_MAC231520_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Fifty-three people were killed in Baghdad in the 24 hours since the bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine sparked the worst sectarian violence the country has seen since the fall of Saddam Hussein, police said on Thursday.

Gunmen sprayed a Sunni mosque in the city of Baquba, northeast of the capital, killing one person in the latest of dozens of such incidents that have left religious and political leaders scrambling to halt a descent into all-out civil war.

Most of the people killed in Baghdad were Arab Sunnis who were attacked at mosques, police said.

Three journalists working for Al-Arabiya television were found shot dead after being attacked while filming in Samarra, where the bloodless but highly symbolic bombing of the Golden Mosque at dawn on Wednesday provoked widespread protest.

[EuroObserver]

1. Iraq forces on alert as sectarian killings mount

Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:07 AM GMT12
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-23T110641Z_01_MAC231520_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ.xml
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq cancelled all leave for the police and army and placed them on the highest alert as the death toll mounted on Thursday in sectarian violence that has swept the country after bombs wrecked a major Shi'ite shrine.

A crisis summit called by the president to halt a descent to all-out civil war was thrown into doubt when the biggest Sunni political group boycotted it in protest at what it called the Shi'ite-led government's failure to protect Sunni mosques.

The leading Sunni religious body accused Shi'ite clerics of fuelling the violence; the comments by a spokesman for the Muslim Clerics Association were a rare, if veiled, attack on Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a revered figure for majority Shi'ites who has called for protests but also restraint.

Police and military sources tallied at least 78 deaths, mostly of Sunnis, in the two biggest cities, Baghdad and Basra, in the 24 hours since suspected al Qaeda bombs devastated the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest sites.

/more...

[sabra]

2. NBC Baghdad blog noted that yesterday may be treated as Iraq's 9/11

:-(

[4dsc]

3. More than 120 shot dead in Iraq sectarian bloodshed

This is really bad..


More than 120 shot dead in Iraq sectarian bloodshed

Gunmen have killed at least 127 people in Iraq in sectarian violence that flared after the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine and reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques, officials say.

Amid warnings that sectarian violence could spiral further out of control, Iraqi political leaders went into an emergency meeting with President Jalal Talabani.

The bloodshed is likely to complicate the task of Shiite and Sunni political leaders who have pledged to set up a government of national unity in the wake of the December elections which illustrated a deep sectarian split in Iraq.

Eighty bullet-ridden corpses were brought to the Baghdad morgue between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, the deputy director of the morgue, Dr Kais Mohammed, told AFP.

"I've only been able to carry out autopsies on 25 of them," he said, adding that all had been shot.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200602/s1577160.htm

[EuroObserver]

4. Over 100 killed as sectarian violence sweeps Iraq

Thu Feb 23, 2006 3:28 PM GMT
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 130 people, including dozens who joined a demonstration against sectarian violence, were killed in bloodshed across Iraq despite calls for calm on Thursday from leaders fearful of civil war.

A day after a suspected al Qaeda bomb destroyed a major Shi'ite shrine, Iraq cancelled all leave for the police and army and minority Sunni political leaders pulled out of U.S.-backed talks on forming a national unity government, accusing the ruling Shi'ites of fomenting dozens of attacks on Sunni mosques.

/more... Reuters needs to learn how to spell "al-CIAda". + check out the "related stories"

[EuroObserver]

5. Bodies burnt in open after Nigeria riots kill 138

Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:56 PM GMT
ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Christian youths burnt the corpses of Muslims on Thursday on the streets of Onitsha in southeastern Nigeria, the city worst hit by religious riots that have killed at least 138 people across the country in five days.

Christian mobs, seeking revenge for the killings of Christians in the north, attacked Muslims with cutlasses, destroyed their houses and torched mosques in two days of violence in Onitsha, where at least 85 people have died.

...more... Warning, not graphic but very disturbing nonetheless :-(