Iraq Sectarian Spree Kills 83 in 2 Days

Iraqi farmer Amer Dawood is treated for gunshot wound at Baqouba hospital, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad Sunday, Oct 15, 2006. As Dawood and his two brothers traveled from Baqouba to Kurdish controlled territories in northern Iraq, where they sell their produce, they came under attack by unknown gunmen that left all three of them wounded. (AP Photo/Mohammed Adnan) (Mohammed Adnan - AP)

Suspected Shiite militiamen then began targeting Sunnis in Balad and surrounding towns, killing at least 46 overnight, according to police and hospital officials.

Extra police flooded into the area, 50 miles north of Baghdad, to enforce a curfew and additional security measures were taken in other villages in the area, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.

Despite that, bullet-ridden bodies continued to be delivered to the Balad's main hospital well into Sunday morning, according to a hospital director who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals.

An army officer in the nearby city of Tikrit confirmed the death toll and said 63 suspects _ both Sunnis and Shiites _ were arrested.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni political group, said 30 Sunnis had been killed and accused the Shiite-dominated police force of cooperating with the militias in snatching 70 people from Balad hospital and other locations.

"The Iraqi Islamic party condemns the violence in Balad for which we hold the occupation forces and government fully responsible," the party said in a statement, using its standard term for the U.S. military presence.

In one of the Kirkuk bombings, two girls who died when a man detonated explosives strapped to his body in front of the Kurdish al-Mallimin girls high school in downtown Kirkuk, police officials said.

The American military said the Marine was killed in combat in Anbar province, the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad on Saturday.

Three soldiers died in a roadside bombing Saturday south of Baghdad, and one soldier was killed in a roadside bombing Friday night southwest of the capital. The soldiers' names were being withheld pending notification of their families.

In Baghdad Sunday, Interior Ministry undersecretary Hala Shakir Salim survived a roadside bomb attack that killed seven others.