Dozens of bodies discovered in Baghdad as Iraq slides into civil war

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" Zepp " <zepp

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 07:13:35 -0800

[Zepps_News] Dozens of bodies discovered in Baghdad as Iraq

slides into civil war

 

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1716147,00.html

 

*At least 78 dead in Iraq reprisals*

 

*Staff and agencies

Thursday February 23, 2006*

 

Followers of the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr protest in Baghdad

following the bombing of one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines yesterday.

Photogarph: Karim Kadim/AP

Followers of the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr protest in Baghdad

following the bombing of one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines yesterday.

Photogarph: Karim Kadim/AP

 

 

The death toll from violence sparked by the bombing of a Shia shrine

in Samarra rose to at least 78 today, heightening fears that Iraq is

sliding towards civil war.

 

Police and military sources said most of the dead were Sunnis, killed

in the 24 hours since the attack that destroyed the golden dome on the

al-Askari shrine, one of Shia Islam's most revered sites.

 

Tony Blair joined Iraqi leaders in appealing for calm as the

government in Baghdad cancelled all police and army leave and extended

curfews in the capital and other cities in an attempt to prevent

violence from spreading further.

 

" The very purpose of those who destroyed the shrine is to stop the

will of the Iraqi people for the country to come together in a unity

government, " he said.

 

" Each time this happens our reaction is not to say let's walk away.

Our response has to be we stand up and defeat these people. "

 

Nearly 50 people were pulled from buses and shot dead in the Nahrawan

area, south-east of Baghdad. Their bodies were later found behind a

brick factory.

 

Sixteen people were killed, including eight civilians, and 21 injured

when a bomb aimed at an army foot patrol exploded in a busy market in

Baquba, north-east of Baghdad.

 

Earlier one person was killed and two injured when gunmen opened fire

on a Sunni mosque in the town.

 

Iraqi police also reported finding some 50 bodies - many with bound

hands - at sites around Baghdad, but it was not immediately clear if

this figure included the 40 recovered in Nahrawan.

 

In Basra, which is predominantly Shia, men dressed in police uniform

took 11 Sunni prisoners from a prison. They were later found dead at

various sites in the of the city. Officials put the overall death toll

in Basra at 25.

 

A well-known Iraqi journalist working for al-Arabiya television and

two members of her crew were kidnapped and killed while reporting on

the shrine attack in Samarra.

 

The bodies of Atwar Bahiat, 26 - a Sunni who had previously worked for

al-Jazeera - and her cameraman Adnan Khairallah and soundman Khaled

Mohsen, were found on the outskirts of town.

 

An official from the Dubai-based station said one of the crew managed

to escape from the ambush and informed police.

 

Speaking during his monthly press conference in London, Mr Blair said

al-Qaida was the most obvious suspect behind the Samarra bombing. He

also called on Iraqis not to let the attack derail efforts to form a

unity government.

 

His comments were echoed by the foreign secretary, Jack Straw.

 

" There is not yet information about what caused this terrorist

outrage, but [Abu Musab] al-Zarqawi and al-Qaida have been linked as

it has the hallmarks of their nihilism, " Mr Straw said.

 

" From what I know of the Iraqi people, they have the will to work

through this. "

 

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice - who is visiting the

Middle East - echoed calls from George Bush for Iraqis to avoid

descent into sectarian violence.

 

" The only people that want a civil war in Iraq are the terrorists like

Zarqawi, " she said. " The Iraqi people are working under extremely

difficult circumstances to bridge sectarian differences. "

 

The UN security council also called on Iraqis to rally behind a

non-sectarian government.

 

The wave of violence comes as Iraq's various factions struggle to

agree on the formation of a government after elections for the

country's first full-term parliament on December 15.

 

They have until mid-May to form a new government. Talks between the

main Shia, Sunni and Kurdish political parties were already stumbling,

and yesterday's attack and the ensuing violence have brought deadlock.

 

The Sunni party, the Iraqi Accordance Front, said it was suspending

negotiations with the Shia Alliance over the government's failure to

protect Sunni mosques, over 90 of which have been attacked.

 

It said it would need an apology from Shia leaders - who it accuses of

fostering violence - before it would rejoin talks. The president of

Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, blamed the US and Israel for the bombing of

the shrine, saying it was the work of " defeated Zionists and occupiers " .

 

Referring to the US-led forces in Iraq, he told a crowd of thousands

in south-western Iran: " They invade the shrine and bomb there because

they oppose God and justice. "