Violence Between Shiites, Sunnis Escalate

[cal04]

Two car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Monday, killing a bystander and wounding half a dozen others. Gunmen shot down six people, including a child, in a market area of the southern city of Basra, police said. Also Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Riceand British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged Iraqi leaders to form a government as soon as possible to curb the bloodshed and rein in sectarian militias behind much of the violence.

Violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims has escalated since the Feb. 22 bombing of an important Shiite shrine in Samarra. In Baghdad's Dora district, four gunmen charged into a Shiite home late Sunday, lined up a brother, two sisters, and an uncle against a wall and shot them dead, police said.

The father of the family, a grocery shop owner, had been killed six months earlier by gunmen in the same neighborhood, one of Baghdad's most dangerous. The mother was visiting relatives when the Sunday attack occurred, police said. The victims of the drive-by shooters in Basra included a navy officer, two policemen, two workers at an electrical plant, and a boy, police said. Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, is 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The car bombings happened early Monday, one in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City slum, the other in the central district of Karradah, both mostly Shiite areas. The Sadr City explosion killed at least one civilian and wounded four others, and two were wounded in Karradah. The targets were not known, police said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060403/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[shadowknows69]

1. Unckey Bush?

Is it a civil war yet??

[truthisfreedom]

2. and if it's a civil war, WHICH SIDE ARE WE ON?

just wondering.

[acmavm]

3. Let's see Condasleeza put a good spin on this. n/t

[LiberalVoice]

4. How fucking terrible.

Imagine visiting relatives only to find out your entire family as been murdered 6 months after your husband dies. :cry:

[leftchick]

5. the US has brought Iraq rivers of blood...

[brokensymmetry]

6. You're still forgetting the GOOD news!

Somewhere in Iraq, a school was painted. No doubt it was supplied with many copies of "My pet goat".

:sarcasm:

[OKNancy]

7. Yahoo changed title of article

to:

Car Bombs, Drive-Bys Kill Seven in Iraq

( just posting it so if there is a duplicate we mods can find it easier :-) )

[yellowcanine]

8. Damn good thing Rummy says it is not a civil war. Otherwise we might

mistakenly think that it is.:sarcasm: