Calls by political and religious leaders and a daytime curfew have failed to curb violence that claimed more than 200 lives across Iraq after the bombing of a famous Shiite mosque on Wednesday.
On Saturday morning, a car bomb detonated in a market in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala, killing and wounding dozens of people, police said, according to Reuters. Kerbala's governor conveyed at least six people had been killed in this Shiite town.
Also Saturday, two security agents died when shots were fired on the funeral procession of an Al Arabiya TV correspondent killed this week while reporting on an attack on a Shiite shrine in Samarra. Four police officers were also wounded in Saturday's attack.
The convoy was carrying the body of Atwar Bahjat. Iraqi security personnel were accompanying the procession from Baghdad, since the capital was under curfew Saturday.
In another incident, gunmen stormed a house near the Iraqi city of Baquba and executed 12 members of the same Shiite family.
Late Friday, two rockets were fired in a village southeast of Baghdad that includes a tomb revered by Shiites. There was no damage to the tomb, U.S. and Iraqi officials declared. Two more rockets went off in the British Embassy compound in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, causing minor injuries to two British workers, the U.S. military added.
Police found at least 27 bodies Friday in Baghdad and other cities and towns. In Samarra, a roadside bomb killed two policemen, and a husband and wife in a passing vehicle were wounded when police opened fire after the attack, police said.
These developments came despite the attempt of Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to reach out to Sunnis and Shiites, vowing to rebuild the Askari shrine in Samarra and Sunni mosques damaged in two days of reprisals.
The daytime curfew, which was first imposed Friday, kept most vehicles and pedestrians off the streets of Baghdad. People were just allowed to walk to neighborhood mosques, many of which were guarded by armed Iraqi police and soldiers.
The daytime curfew is applied in Baghdad and the surrounding provinces of Salaheddin, Babil and Diyala. And the U.S. military said it would carry out additional security patrols for another 48 hours.
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. "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.
