Annan condemn Iraq violence and appeals for calm

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged calm Friday amid the “heinous” upsurge of violence in Iraq, saying the bloodshed is designed to widen sectarian divisions and further weaken national unity in the war-battered country.

The death toll from a suspected Sunni-Arab assault on capital’s Sadr City Shiite slum rose to 215 people today, a day after car bombs and mortar rounds marked the deadliest attack in the war as bombs killed 23 people in the northern town of Tal Afar.