Iraq bloodshed continues as sectarian tensions increase

POLICE in Baghdad yesterday found the bodies of at least 85 men killed execution style in a gruesome wave of apparent sectarian killing, according to the Interior Ministry.

The bodies, many of them bound and bearing signs of torture, included 29 found by children, and 15 strangled men left in an abandoned vehicle, police said.

The bloodshed followed explosions in a teeming Shi’ite slum on Sunday in which 58 people died and more than 200 were wounded. It marked the second wave of mass killings in Iraq since February 22 when bombers destroyed an important Shi’ite Muslim shrine in Samarra, north of the capital.

An abandoned minibus containing 15 bodies was found on the main road between two mostly Sunni west Baghdad neighbourhoods - not far from where another minibus containing 18 bodies was discovered last week, said Interior Ministry official Major Falah al-Mohammedawi.

Less than two hours later, the bodies of 10 more men were found dumped in their underwear in a field in Kamaliyah, a mostly Shi’ite east Baghdad suburb, he said.

At least 40 more bodies were discarded in various parts of Baghdad, including both Sunni and Shi’ite neighbourhoods, said Maj al-Mohammedawi.

They included a number recovered from Sadr city, where two car bombs and four mortar rounds shattered shops and market stalls on Sunday night.

Radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - whose stronghold was targeted on Sunday - refused to be provoked. With thousands of his Mahdi Army militiamen ready to fight, the anti-American leader called for calm and national unity.

President Jalal Talabani said terrorists bent on civil war had taken advantage of a power vacuum caused by the delay in forming the new government.

“It is the duty of the political groups to accelerate efforts to form the government, and the armed forces and security bodies should act swiftly to eliminate such crimes,” he said.

Mr al-Sadr, addressing reporters in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, appeared to absolve the larger Sunni community, saying: “Sunnis and Shi’ites are not responsible for such acts.”

Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samaraie, head of the Sunni Endowment, the state agency responsible for Sunni mosques and shrines, called the Sadr City attack “a cowardly and criminal act”.