A masked man holds a weapon while providing security to the al-Muhajeeren Sunni mosque in the Ghazaliya district, west of Baghdad, yesterday. Machine gun fire, augmented by blasts from rocket-propelled grenades, forced residents in Ghazaliya to cower indoors fearing a repeat of bloodshed in neighbouring Jihad on Sunday, when Shi'ite militiamen killed over 40 people in broad daylight. - REUTERS
BAGHDAD (Reuters):
SUICIDE BOMBERS struck outside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone yesterday, killing 16 people, close to where Parliament met in heated session to hear at least one lawmaker warn that civil war was close at hand.
Since Parliament met last week, dozens have been killed in the capital in bombings and some of the worst attacks yet seen by sectarian gunmen; militants in a Sunni area ambushed a bus full of Shi'ite mourners, killing 10 of them yesterday.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite leading a U.S.-backed national unity coalition, condemned an "awful crime" by terrorists "trying to incite sectarian strife".
An al Qaeda-led group posted video on the Internet of two mutilated corpses.
It said they were American soldiers kidnapped and killed last month and claimed they died to avenge the alleged rape and murder of a local teenager by U.S. troops.
On a positive note, the main political bloc of the once dominant Sunni minority ended a week-old boycott of Parliament, saying it had encouraging news about the fate of a woman member kidnapped in a Shi'ite neighbourhood 10 days ago.
As night fell on Baghdad, however, in a pattern seen for the last few days, there was more violence.
A car bomb in the western Alam district killed five and wounded 17, police said, while clashes erupted between militia fighters and residents in the violent Sunni area of Amriya.
