International   

41 killed in Iraq violence

Sunni leaders express outrage over the Sunday attacks

BAGHDAD: Masked Shia gunmen went on the rampage on Sunday in western Baghdad, pulling Sunni Arabs from cars and off the street and killing at least 41 persons, police said, in a dramatic escalation of sectarian violence.

The attack in the Jihad neighbourhood was in apparent retaliation for the Saturday night car bombing of a Shia mosque that killed two and wounded nine. Sunni leaders expressed outrage over the Sunday attacks, referring to them as a ``massacre.''

Armed men belonging to the Mahdi army, the Shia militia loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, sealed off roads leading to the neighbouring area of Shula, fearing reprisals, police said, though Mr. al-Sadr aides denied their militiamen were behind the attacks. Clashes also were reported in the area and in eastern Baghdad. Police and witnesses said gunmen drove into the Jihad area in four cars at about 10 a.m. and began stopping vehicles. Those with identification cards indicating Sunni names were killed, they said.

Charged with rape, murder

An Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said Shia militiamen wearing masks and black uniforms also roamed the neighbourhood, abducting Sunnis off the street. Their bodies were later dumped on streets throughout the neighbourhood, police said.

Four U.S. soldiers were charged with the rape and murder of an Iraqi woman and the killing of her three family members, the U.S. military said on Sunday.

Earlier, the U.S. military said that three were charged with rape and murder, but later corrected the number to four.

A fifth soldier was charged with dereliction of duty for failing to report the case, but is not believed to have participated in it directly, said the U.S. military in a statement.

The charges came after the U.S. military investigated allegations that the soldiers raped the woman, killed her and her three family members and then burnt their bodies to destroy evidence in Mahmudiya village, south of Baghdad, in March. — AP, Xinhua

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Brake failure cited as reason for plane crash
PoK Assembly polls on Tuesday
Nepal election panel chief resigns
41 killed in Iraq violence
Civilian killed in Israeli raid
Kim warns of retaliation
Reply in mid-August: Iran
Chidambaram not to attend SAARC meet
Gujarat signs agreement with Gazprom
Sri Lanka notice to IOC subsidiary

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu