Sectarian Violence Kills Over 100 in Iraq

"I call on Sayyid Moqtada Sadr and remind him what happened to the blood of both of us in Fallujah, Karbala and Najaf" during Sunni and Shiite uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004, said Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a leading Sunni religious group, using a Muslim title of respect. The association said 10 of its imams had been killed in the recent violence. "We demand Sayyid Sadr to intervene."

On Thursday, Sadr called on followers to continue demonstrating and said the Mahdi Army would "protect the holy sites in Samarra in specific and the mosques and shrines in general."

Thousands attended peaceful demonstrations against the Samarra bombing in the Shiite-majority southern city of Najaf and the diverse northern city of Kirkuk. Protesters also gathered in Samarra, where police on Thursday found the bodies of three Iraqi journalists. Atwar Bahjat, a correspondent with al-Arabiya television, and two employees of al-Wasan television were abducted a day earlier while covering the aftermath of the bombing, according to al-Arabiya reporter Ahmed al-Salih, who managed to evade the kidnappers.

Baghdad was largely quiet on the first day of a government-declared mourning period to mark the destruction of the Samarra shrine, with shops shuttered and only light traffic on the streets. Several residents said they were stocking up on food and other supplies, and few women or children were seen outdoors -- often a sign that people are braced for violence.

The capital's main morgue overflowed with more than 80 bodies strewn throughout rooms and corridors, after a night in which bands of roving gunmen were seen in several neighborhoods, some of whose residents reported taking up arms to defend their homes and religious centers.

Scars of the retaliatory violence were widely evident. In Idreesi, east of downtown, a blackened Sunni mosque, its windows shattered, was closed off behind a locked iron gate. Campaign posters for a Sunni politician, Adnan al-Dulaimi, had been torn from the outer wall. Men had shot at the building with rifles Wednesday afternoon, residents said, before returning with drums of gasoline and setting them ablaze.

"I think the worst has passed," said a Western diplomat in Baghdad, noting that there were fewer reports of violence during daylight hours Thursday. "But I do not say that we will never have problems like this again."

A U.S. military spokesman stressed that Iraqi security forces were leading efforts to suppress the violence. "We're not seeing civil war ignited in Iraq," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch. "We're seeing a competent, capable Iraqi government using their security forces to calm the storm."

Iraqi security officials told news services that as many as 10 arrests had been made related to the Samarra bombing. National security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie suggested in televised interviews that the attack bore the hallmark of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The mujaheddin shura, a council of insurgent groups including al-Qaeda in Iraq, issued a statement blaming the attack on the Iraqi government in "coordination" with Iran. The council said it was preparing a "shocking" response to the "conspiracy."

Correspondents Ellen Knickmeyer and Nelson Hernandez and special correspondents Omar Fekeiki and K.I. Ibrahim in Baghdad, Hassan Shammari in Baqubah and Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.