At least 64 bodies found in 24 Baghdad hours

Iraqi police today reported they had found the bodies of at least 65 men killed by gunshots, most bound hand and foot, in a gruesome wave of apparent sectarian killing over the past 24 hours in some of Baghdad’s most dangerous neighbourhoods.

The bloodshed followed deadly explosions in a teeming Shiite 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 Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra, north of the capital.

An abandoned minibus containing 15 bodies was found today 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 Shiite east Baghdad suburb, he said.

At least 40 more bodies were discarded in various parts of Baghdad, including both Sunni and Shiite neighbourhoods, said 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, as residents shopped for food for their evening meals.

Scorched pavements, destroyed shops, burned-out cars and four men shot in the head execution-style and hanged from electricity pylons awaited Shiite residents emerging from their homes yesterday in Sadr City.

The scene, although gruesome, was not what many had feared: that the deadly explosions the previous night would ignite all-out civil war.

Radical Shiite 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.

Britain, the US’ largest military partner in Iraq, showed its confidence yesterday by announcing a 10%, about 800-troop, reduction by May.

“This is a significant reduction, which is based largely on the ability of the Iraqis themselves to participate and defend themselves against terrorism, but there is a long, long way to go,” British Defence Secretary John Reid said in London.

The US hopes to begin withdrawing some of its troops by this summer if a new Iraqi government is in place and judged sufficiently in control. But sectarian violence and political bickering has stalled the process.

In Washington, US President George Bush said insurgents were trying to ignite a civil war by escalating violence.

“I wish I could tell you that the violence is waning and that the road ahead will be smooth,” Bush said in a speech at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies at George Washington University.

“It will not. There will be more tough fighting and more days of struggle, and we will see more images of chaos and carnage in the days and months to come.”

Iraq’s new parliament will convene for the first time on Thursday, three months after it was elected, to begin the process of forming the next government.

Bomb blasts and shootings in Baghdad and north of the capital, many of them targeting Iraqi police patrols, killed at least 15 people yesterday and wounded more than 40.

They included a US soldier who died in a roadside bombing, the military said. A US Marine was reported killed on Sunday in the insurgent-plagued Anbar province.

The American deaths brought the number of US military members killed to at least 2,308 since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

Police and Sheikh Amer al-Husseini, a senior aide to al-Sadr, said the four men shot and hanged in Sadr City were captured by members of the cleric’s militia. Police said they cut the bodies down and took them to a hospital morgue yesterday morning.

“We know nothing about their nationalities but residents reported that they were arrested yesterday by Mahdi Army,” said police Lieutenant Laith Abdul-Aal.

“Two of them were wearing explosive belts and two others had mortar tubes.”

Al-Husseini identified the men as three Iraqis and a Syrian.

Iraqi police manned checkpoints yesterday at main entrances to Sadr City, and armed militiamen fanned out inside the neighbourhood. Many people ventured out only to buy food.

Under the watchful eye of armed militiamen, market sellers picked through the charred, twisted remains of their stalls to salvage what they could.

Abdel Karim al-Bahadli, 42, wept when he saw the devastation at the market close to his home. He blamed the extremist Sunni Takfiri sect of terrorist boss Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

“This is not resistance because there were no US troops in the markets yesterday,” he said. “The Takfiris are only after Shiites. We will not be silent any more.”

Sadr City residents had feared an attack like this one after al-Sadr’s fighters stormed out of the slum to take revenge on Sunni Muslims and their mosques after the February 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra.

Politicians scrambled yesterday to keep a lid on violence.

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

Al-Sadr, addressing reporters in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, appeared to absolve the larger Sunni community, saying: “Sunnis and Shiites are not responsible for such acts.” Instead, he blamed al-Qaida in Iraq and US forces.

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”.

“There are some hands trying to add fuel to the fire for their own benefit,” he said on television.

The attacks on Sunday came just after political leaders said the new parliament will convene on Thursday. The session will set in motion a 60-day deadline for the legislature to elect a president, approve a prime minister and sign off on his cabinet.