Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, ordered an urgent investigation into the behaviour of government security forces in the north-western city of Tal Afar on Wednesday, after reports that a gang of Shia gunmen who killed scores of Sunni residents in revenge for two huge truck bombs in a Shia area had included a number of off-duty police officers.
Local officials said that as many as 60 people had been killed after the gunmen rampaged through the Sunni district of al-Wihda shooting at pedestrians and dragging people from their homes. Hospital officials put the toll at 45 and said many of the victims appeared to have been shot execution style, with bullet wounds to the back of the head.
Terrified residents said the shooting continued for two hours before troops from the Iraqi army’s third division intervened and imposed a curfew. Unconfirmed reports said the army had arrested scores of men, including at least 18 off-duty police officers. The other gunmen were said to be members of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi militia, known to be active among Tal Afar’s large Shia Turkomen community.
Major-General Khorshid Saleem, of the Iraqi army, said: ”Militias conducted these acts and, if it had not been for the army interference, the people killed in the carnage would be in the thousands.”
He said the the incident had been sparked by a double suicide truck bombing in a Shia neighbourhood on Tuesday night which police said killed 55 people and wounded 180.
Elsewhere, two suicide attackers driving chlorine truck bombs blew themselves up after being fired at outside a local government building in Fallujah. Fifteen Iraqi and United States troops were wounded in the blasts and ”numerous” Iraqi personnel were said to be affected by the gas fumes. In the restive province of Diyal, a stronghold for Sunni extremists, US and Iraqi troops said they had killed 25 suspected militants. – Guardian Unlimited Â