Gunmen kill 40 in Baghdad rampage
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-09 17:45
Two men
lie on the road shortly after they were shot by gunmen in Baghdad July 9,
2006. Gunmen shot dead eight people at fake checkpoints in Baghdad's Sunni
Jihad district on Sunday, close to a Shi'ite mosque where a car bomb
killed three people on Saturday night, police said.
[Reuters] |
Up to 40 people, including women and children, were killed on Sunday when
Shi'ite gunmen went on a rampage against residents in predominantly Sunni
districts of Baghdad, Interior Ministry and police sources said.
It was the worst outbreak of sectarian violence to date in the capital, which
has seen hundreds of bodies dumped in the streets over past months amid
worsening communal bloodshed.
Baghdad's Yarmuk hospital said it had received at least 17 bodies. The
Interior Ministry said it had transferred 20 bodies to the hospital.
"Gunmen are killing Sunni civilians according to their identity cards," an
Interior Ministry source told Reuters.
Residents said it appeared the killings were in retaliation for the bombing
of a Shi'ite mosque in Sunni Jihad district on Saturday night in which at least
three people were killed and 19 wounded.
The Interior Ministry initially reported that gunmen had shot dead eight
people at fake checkpoints close to the mosque.
U.S. and Iraqi troops have sealed off the district, police said, and US
helicopters could be seen circling overhead. The US military said it was
checking the report.
Reuters witnesses in the area heard shooting and then saw the bodies of four
men lying on the side of a road. All were bound and several blindfolded, a
typical trademark of the sectarian violence that has pushed Iraq towards all-out
civil war.
A number of Shi'ite and Sunni mosques have been hit in tit- for-tat attacks
in the past three days.
|
