BAGHDAD, Feb 23: Gunmen have shot dead 130 people in two days of violence in Iraq after the bombing of a revered shrine, prompting renewed political paralysis and warnings of civil war.
The spiralling violence threatens to derail negotiations on setting up a government of national unity, with the main Sunni political party declaring a boycott of talks with the Shia-led government.
The main Sunni alliance, the National Concord Front, also boycotted an emergency meeting of national leaders held by President Jalal Talabani in a bid to restore calm.
The surge in violence follows Wednesday bombing of a shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, and reprisals against mosques nationwide.
Eighty bullet-riddled corpses were brought to the Baghdad morgue between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, the deputy director of the morgue, Dr Kais Mohammed, told AFP, adding that all had been shot. Many of the bodies, which were dumped in Baghdad and its suburbs, could not immediately be identified, but they were widely believed to be those of Sunnis.
Another 47 bodies of men shot to death were discovered along with 10 burned out cars alongside a road near Nahrawan.
A man was killed on Thursday and two wounded in a drive by shooting outside a mosque in Baquba, and a cleric was shot dead in Hillah.
Iraq has placed its security forces on high alert and cancelled all leave. The night curfew in Baghdad was brought forward from 11pm to 8 pm on Wednesday.
