Winks Blog

Multiple Killings, Bodies Found

Good Morning,

Also Saturday, gunmen in two cars stopped a vehicle in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, forced the two passengers to get out and killed them in front of horrified bystanders, according to police Lt. Maithem Abdel-Razaq.

In the same neighborhood, gunmen opened fire on a Shiite family as it was moving out of the city, wounding five members, police said. Dora has a mixed Sunni-Shiite population and has become one of the most dangerous areas in the capital for sectarian violence.

Elsewhere, gunmen Saturday killed three people working in an ice cream shop in the mostly Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Nahrawan, police Lt. Fikrat Mohammed said.

Police also reported finding two bodies in separate locations in eastern Baghdad. They were believed the latest victims of sectarian death squads.

Meanwhile, gunmen in two speeding car fired Saturday on a Sunni mosque in west Baghdad's Ghazaliya neighborhood. Mosque guards returned fire and the attackers fled, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said.

The incidents occurred a day after at least 17 others died in a wave of bombings and mortar attacks against mostly Sunni mosques in the Baghdad area and northern Iraq. A Sunni cleric was also kidnapped in the capital, a Sunni official said.

Sectarian violence has forced thousands of Iraqis to move to different neighborhoods or cities where their sect is predominant. The Interior Ministry estimated earlier this month that nearly 4,000 families _ or about 23,670 people _ have been forced to relocate to other neighborhoods in the Baghdad area alone.

On Friday, U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden said the "jury's still out" on whether Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will clamp down on sectarian militias blamed for much of the spiraling sectarian violence.

Earlier Friday, Iraqi forces backed by U.S. jets and soldiers raided the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City in what appeared to be a crackdown on unauthorized armed groups. U.S. officials said 30-40 "enemy fighters" were killed or wounded, but residents claimed up to 11 civilians died.

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 8:31 AM