Wave of violence kills 111 across Iraq
Gunmen shot dead 47 civilians and left their bodies in a ditch near Baghdad as militia battles and sectarian reprisals followed the bombing of a sacred Shi'ite shrine.
Sunni Arabs suspended their participation in talks on a new government.
At least 111 people were believed killed in two days of rage unleashed by Wednesday's attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra, a mostly Sunni Arab city 97km north of Baghdad.
The hardline Sunni Clerical Association of Muslim Scholars said 168 Sunni mosques had been attacked around the country, 10 imams killed and 15 abducted since the shrine attack. The Interior Ministry said it could only confirm figures for Baghdad, where it had reports of 19 mosques attacked, one cleric killed and one abducted.
The bullet-ridden bodies of a prominent female correspondent and two other journalists who had been covering the explosion in Samarra were found on the outskirts of the city.
The sectarian violence threatens to destroy whatever hope is left for US plans to form a new national unity government representing all factions, including Sunni Arabs, who form the backbone of the insurgency.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, summoned political leaders to a meeting yesterday, but the biggest Sunni faction in the new parliament, the Iraqi Accordance Front, refused to attend, citing the attacks on Sunni mosques.
"It is illogical to negotiate with parties that are trying to damage the political process," said Tariq al-Hashimi, a leader of the Accordance Front.
US President George W Bush said the bombing was intended to divide the Iraqi people.
"The act was an evil act," he said. "The destruction of a holy site is a political act intending to create strife."
Mr Bush said the US was committed to helping rebuild the mosque.
As the country veered towards sectarian war, the government extended a curfew in Baghdad and Salaheddin province for two days. All leaves for Iraqi soldiers and police were cancelled.
The US military said four soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, were killed Wednesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near Hawijah. Three others from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division died when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Balad, 80km north of Baghdad.
Radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accused the Iraqi government and US forces of failing to protect the Samarra shrine, also known as the Golden Mosque, and ordered his militia to defend Shi'ite holy sites across Iraq.
"If the government had real sovereignty, then nothing like this would have happened," Mr al-Sadr said.
The destruction of the gleaming dome of the 1,200-year-old Askariya shrine sent crowds of angry Shi'ites into the streets across Iraq. The crowds included members of Mr al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and other Shi'ite militias that the US wants abolished.
A spokesman for the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars blamed the violence on the country's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and other Shi'ite religious leaders who called for demonstrations against the shrine attack.
Abdul-Salam Al-Kubaisi also said US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad may have inflamed the situation when he warned the US would not continue to support institutions run by sectarian groups with links to armed militias. Sunnis accuse Shi'ite militiamen operating in the ranks of the Interior Ministry, which controls the police, of widespread abuse.
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