Leaders scramble to calm nation, but violence still flares

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Political and religious leaders struggled Friday to pull Iraq back from the brink of sectarian civil war, calling for peace and extending through today a curfew meant to reduce the violence that has left more than 140 people dead this week.

Joint Sunni-Shiite Muslim prayer services were broadcast on television. Government security forces flooded the streets to prevent further strife between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, beefing up protection of mosques and other religious sites. U.S. military forces stepped up patrols around the volatile parts of the country, U.S. officials said. Leaders of the Muslim Scholars Association, a Sunni clerical group, met with loyalists of militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Politicians held a series of emergency meetings meant to stave off violence.

But the bloodshed continued, including a gunbattle between Shiite Muslim militiamen and suspected Sunni Arab insurgents in Baghdad. Attacks elsewhere left at least 30 dead on Friday. At least three Sunni mosques in southern Baghdad were attacked late Friday night and mortar rounds landed near the Shiite shrine of Salman al-Farisi, a seventh-century Persian convert to Islam in the town of Salman Pak, 20 miles south of the capital, according to police and television reports.

The curfew largely was ignored in areas of Baghdad and southern cities controlled by al-Sadr loyalists. Huge crowds gathered for Friday prayers in Baghdad's Sadr City district. Prayer leader Salah Obeidi urged followers to put down their arms.

"We are brothers in the religion of Islam and in peace," he said. "I am calling on you to love each other and not attack each other."

The surge in sectarian conflict was sparked by the destruction of an important Shiite holy site on Wednesday in Samarra. Acts of retribution have resulted in more than 140 deaths and damage to dozens of mosques, deepening the divide between the country's majority Shiite Muslims and minority Sunnis.

"Iraq has not experienced such attacks on the houses of God since the time of the Mongols and for a few days during the Communist tide," Ahmed Hassan Al-Samaraie, Friday prayer leader at the Abu Hanifa shrine, the leading Sunni mosque in Iraq, told congregants. "This is chaotic, terrorist behavior and a loss of control that no one would be honored to attribute to himself."

U.S. officials in Baghdad struggled to contain the damage, holding what one official called an "intense marathon" of meetings and public appearances, including a live 35-minute interview by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad on the state-owned Iraqiya television channel.

"This attack has had a major impact here, getting everyone's attention that Iraq is in danger, that the terrorists are trying to provoke a civil war," Khalilzad said before his television appearance.

A desperate flurry of activity highlighted the fragile status of the nation's security.

"There are meetings and meetings over and over again trying to put this crisis down," said Basam Redha, an aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. "We have a lot of heated and steamed and upset people. We are calming down what we call hot-blooded young men in the Shiite community."

Al-Jaafari announced new security measures including an increase of government forces in tense neighborhoods and along roads leading to religious sites, a prohibition of civilian vehicle traffic into and out of Baghdad, and a ban on public displays of unlicensed weapons. "The presence of our armed forces is for the safeguarding of the citizens and the protection of their interests," al-Jaafari said in an address to the nation.

Still, Sunni political parties have refused to meet with their Shiite counterparts who control the government, blaming them for escalating tension since the Shiite mosque was blown up by unidentified gunmen.

Friday's daytime curfew was meant to blunt the effect of politically charged prayer sermons and prevent bands of armed youth from marauding through the streets. In large part, the lockdown of Baghdad and several neighboring religiously mixed provinces managed to restore a measure of calm.

Yet intermittent mayhem continued. Authorities discovered at least 29 handcuffed bodies with bullet wounds in their heads scattered around the capital, the latest in a series of killings attributed to sectarian militias with alleged ties to the Interior Ministry.

Late Friday night, a Sunni political party's television channel broadcast pleas for help from residents fending off attacks on Sunni mosques.

Police said a 30-minute gunfight between members of Shiite cleric al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and suspected Sunni militants erupted after noon prayers in a southern Baghdad neighborhood. There were no casualties reported.

Gunmen in the northern city of Kirkuk shot dead Khalil Ibrahim Mohammad, a leader of a Shiite militia.

In Samarra, two police officers were killed and two civilians injured in street clashes, and a vital oil pipeline was set ablaze. Hundreds of worshippers attempted to gather near the destroyed shrine for prayers, but were turned back.

In Washington, President Bush warned Americans to expect more bloodshed and more political wrangling in Iraq.

"We can expect the coming days will be intense," the president said in a speech to a veterans group. "But I'm optimistic because the Iraqi people have spoken and make their intentions clear.

"They want their freedom. They want their country to be a democracy," Bush said.

Los Angeles Times reporters Shamil Aziz and Raheem Salman contributed to this report, which includes material from The Associated Press.