Iraqi Shia militiamen machine gunned minority Sunni Muslims in a village mosque today, killing dozens just as Baghdad is trying to build a cross-community government to fight Sunni militants.
A morgue official in Diyala province north of Baghdad said 68 people had been killed in the sectarian attack staged on the Muslim day of prayer. Ambulances took the bodies 60km to the provincial capital of Baquba.
Attacks on mosques are acutely sensitive and have in the past unleashed a deadly series of revenge killings and counter attacks in Iraq.
Lawmaker Nahida al-Dayani, from Diyala, said about 150 worshippers were at Imam Wais mosque when the militiamen arrived following a roadside bombing that had targeted a security vehicle.
“It is a new massacre,” said Ms Dayani, a Sunni originally from the village where the attack happened. “Sectarian militias entered and opened fire at worshippers. Most mosques have no security. Some of the victims were from one family. Some women who rushed to see the fate of their relatives at the mosque were killed.”
Setback for al-Abadi
The bloodbath marks a setback for prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi, from the majority Shia community, who is seeking support from Sunnis and ethnic Kurds to take on the Islamic State insurgency.
An army major who declined to be named said the gunmen arrived in two pickup trucks after two bombs had gone off at the house of a Shia militia leader, killing three of his men.
A Sunni tribal leader, Salman al-Jibouri, said his community was prepared to respond in kind. “Sunni tribes have been alerted to avenge the killings,” he said.
In the northern city of Mosul, the Islamic State – also referred to as Isis – stoned a man to death, witnesses said, as the US raised the prospect of tackling jihadist safe havens across the border in Syria.
In a regional conflict that is throwing up dilemmas for governments from Washington to London to Baghdad and Tehran, any US action against Islamic State in Syria would risk making common cause with President Bashar al-Assad – the man wants overthrown.
Islamic State, which this week released a video showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley, stoned the man to death in Mosul after one of its self-appointed courts sentenced him for adultery, the witnesses said.
The parents of Foley, who was kidnapped while covering the Syrian civil war, called today for support to free other foreigners still held by Islamic State fighters. – (Reuters)