Baghdad toll at 53 as sectarian attacks go on
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-23 14:56

"Violence will only contribute to what the terrorists sought to achieve," he said in a statement, as 130,000 US troops stood by to back up Iraq's new security forces and keep order.

A policeman guarding a Sunni mosque in the southern Shi'ite city of Diwaniya was killed in an attack by Shi'ite militants. Three Sunni clerics were among those killed on Wednesday.

The United Nations Security Council, rarely able to find a common voice on Iraq since its bitter divisions over the U.S. invasion in 2003, sounded a note of alarm in calling on Iraqis to rally behind a non-sectarian government.

"The members of the Security Council understand the anguish caused by the attacks but urge the people of Iraq to defy its perpetrators by showing restraint and unity," it said.

"We don't know what could happen in the next few days," said Mohammed Tariq, standing in a long line outside a bread shop in Baghdad as residents hurried home after the government declared three days of mourning that will keep businesses closed. "I will buy as much as I can because of the security situation."

US CONCERN

Washington wants stability to help it extract its forces but Shi'ite political leaders renewed sharp criticisms of its calls for them to give Sunnis key posts in government, with one party leader accusing the U.S. ambassador of encouraging the bombers by supporting Sunni demands for a share of power this week.

Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, accused the bombers, who dressed as policemen, of trying to derail talks on a national unity coalition: "We must...work together against...the danger of civil war," he told Iraqis in a televised address.

The Shi'ites' reclusive and aging senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani made a rare, if silent, television appearance that underlined the gravity of the crisis. He called in a statement for protests but restraint as protesters outside his office in Najaf chanted: "Rise up Shi'ites! Take revenge!"

Since U.S. forces toppled Saddam's Sunni-dominated government in 2003, Sistani has helped hold in check anger many Shi'ites feel against al Qaeda and other Sunni militants as the Shi'ite majority tastes power after years of oppression.

Sunnis accuse police of running death squads against them and some powerful Shi'ites, buoyed by success in December's election, have said only Sistani has prevented more violence.

Militiamen loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr patrolled streets in Baghdad and clashed in Basra and elsewhere with Sunnis. A Sadr aide said: "If the Iraqi government does not do its job to defend the Iraqi people we are ready to do so."

Sadr himself also called for national unity.

Talks on the government's composition have exposed divisions among Shi'ite leaders, with Sadr gaining influence, and mixed responses to the crisis may reflect jockeying for power.

After gunmen attacked offices of his party in Baghdad and Basra, Sunni political leader Tareq al-Hashimi of the Iraqi Islamic Party said: "We will pursue anyone who attacks Sunnis."

"For the Shi'ites...this is a major assault comparable to an attack on Mecca for all Muslims," said Hazim al-Naimi, a political scientist at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University.

"It could push the country closer to civil war."

Amid the calls for calm, government-run Iraqiya television included in its evening schedule a graphic music video hailing 9th-century Shi'ite leaders' battles against Sunni dominance.