Baghdad Toll At 47 As Sectarian Attacks Go On

A demonstration in Baghdad on 22 February against the Samarra bombing (RFE/RL)

23 February 2006 -- Iraqi police says 47 people were killed in Baghdad in separate incidents over the past 24 hours since the bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine sparked a wave of sectarian violence in the country.

Three journalists working for Al-Arabiyah television were found shot dead after being attacked while filming in Samarra, where the bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque occurred on 22 February.

In an apparent reprisal for the attack on the Al-Askari Mosque, men in police uniform seized 12 Sunni rebel suspects, including two Egyptians, from a prison in the mainly Shi'ite city of Al-Basrah and killed 11 of them.

Elsewhere, gunmen opened fire on a Sunni mosque in the city of Ba'qubah, northeast of the capital, killing one person.

President Jalal Talabani summoned leaders of all sides to a summit at 8:30 a.m. local time today after the bombing provoked outrage among majority Shi'a.

(Reuters, AFP)