Iraq Watch: July 9-10, 2006

Sectarian Violence Surges in Baghdad

Shiite militiamen, mobbing through western Baghdad, systematically executed over 40 Sunni civilians Sunday.

Masked and black-clad rebels arrived by the carload early Sunday morning in the capital's Jihad neighborhood and began searching for Sunnis. Gunmen set up checkpoints throughout the mostly Sunni district probing passer-by's identification cards.

Other militants roamed Jihad's streets going house-to-house rounding up Sunnis.

Suspicion of who was behind the brazen assault immediately fell on the Mahdi Army although the armed Shiite group loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr denied responsibility.

Retaliation, as it so often is in present-day Iraq, was as bloody as it was swift. Shortly after nightfall two car bombs exploded outside a Shiite mosque in northeastern Baghdad killing at least 19 and wounding 59.

Monday saw little letup in the sectarian bloodletting.

Eight Iraqis were killed when two car bombs detonated in quick succession in the capital's Shiite slum of Sadr City. Over 40 were also wounded in the midmorning bombings in eastern Baghdad.

Shortly after the Sadr City blasts, gunmen ambushed a minibus in the predominately Sunni neighborhood of Amariyah, situated in western Baghdad. The attackers killed seven civilians before setting the bus alight and departing.

Meanwhile, in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, a suicide bomber manning a truck plowed into the local offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leaving at least five people dead and another 12 wounded.

The PUK is a powerful Kurdish political party led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.