Mosques torched as bombing toll climbs past 200

The body of a suspected bomber who was killed by a mob lies on the ground as the funeral cortege for some of the bombing victims passes by today in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen bent on revenge burned mosques and homes in a Sunni enclave of Baghdad on Friday as Iraq's leaders pleaded for calm, a day after the worst bomb attack since the U.S. invasion raised the specter of civil war.

Some 30 people were killed, police said, as suspected Shi'ite militiamen rampaged for hours, untroubled by a curfew enforced in the capital by U.S. and Iraqi forces after bombs killed 202 people in the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City.

Four mosques were burnt in a small Sunni part of the mainly Shi'ite Hurriya district in northwest Baghdad, officials said.

One witness said 14 people were killed in his mosque during Friday prayers: "It was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades," university teacher Imad al-Din al-Hashemi said. "When the gunmen moved on to attack another mosque, we evacuated the wounded."

Following a daylight raid on a Shi'ite-run ministry building on Thursday, it was the second such bold appearance by guerrillas in Baghdad in as many days. With the competence and sectarian loyalties of Iraq's U.S.-trained security forces in doubt, some fear such clashes could erupt into open warfare.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

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