The destruction of the golden dome of one of Iraq's holiest Shiite shrines Wednesday, sparked an alarming wave of sectarian violence. Angry crowds went to the streets, armed men attacked Sunni mosques, and over 100 people were killed since the bombing, police said Thursday. In Basra, police said militiamen broke into a prison, hauled out 12 inmates, including two Egyptians, two Tunisians, a Libyan, a Saudi and a Turk, and shot them dead in reprisal for the shrine attack. In early Thursday attack, gunmen sprayed a Sunni mosque in the city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, killing one person.
Later, two others were killed in Basra in an attack on offices of a Sunni political party. Elsewhere, gunmen pulled factory workers off buses northeast of Baghdad and killed 47 of them, a provincial council member said.
In other violence, at least 12 people died in a powerful roadside bomb attack in Baquba, 60 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, of which eight were Iraqi army soldiers and four other civilians, police said, adding 20 others were injured.
In general, some 90 attacks were carried out on Sunni mosques by Shiites since the news on the damage to the Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra.
Three journalists working for Al-Arabiya television were found shot dead after being attacked while filming in Samarra.
On Thursday, the bodies of 23 men were found dumped at six sites in Baghdad, most of them in predominantly Shiite parts of the city, police said. The victims were all shot and most had their hands bound, police said. On Wednesday, 14 bodies were found in the Shiite slum of Sadr City, police Lt. Muhammad Khyoun said. Five more bodies were found in and around the neighborhood Wednesday night, including two in a square and two near a school, Kyoun and police Lt. Ahmed Qassim said.
All in all, some 80 bullet-ridden corpses were brought to the Baghdad morgue between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, the deputy director of the morgue, Doctor Kais Mohammed, told AFP.
Shiite protesters also set fire to a Sunni shrine containing the seventh century tomb of Talha bin Obeid-Allah, a companion of Muhammad, on the outskirts of Basra. Protesters in Najaf, Kut and Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City also marched through the streets, many shouting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans.
Many leaders called for calm. "We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," said President Jalal Talabani, according to the AP. "We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war." Talabani summoned leaders of all sides to an urgent summit at 10:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, a major Sunni political party suspended talks with Shiites and Kurds over a new government until the national leadership apologizes for attacks on Sunni mosques, officials said Thursday. Two spokesmen for the Iraqi Accordance Front confirmed they would not attend the meeting with Talabani and would freeze talks with Kurdish and Shiite parties pending an apology, the AFP reported.
"We were waiting for a clear denunciation by the Shiite coalition regarding the criminal attacks on Sunni mosques and some offices belonging to the Iraqi Islamic party, but this did not happen," Rashid al-Azawi of the Iraqi Islamic party, which is part of the Accordance Front, was quoted as saying by the AP.
President Bush pledged American aid to restore the mosque. "The terrorists in Iraq have again proven that they are enemies of all faiths and of all humanity," Bush stated. "The world must stand united against them, and steadfast behind the people of Iraq." British Prime Minister, Tony Blair also pledged funds toward the shrine's reconstruction.
