Gunmen rampaged through a Sunni district of the northwestern Iraqi town of Tal Afar overnight, killing about 50 people in reprisal for bombings in a Shia area, Iraqi officials said today.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shia, ordered an inquiry into reports the gunmen included policemen from his Shia- dominated security forces, an official in his office said.
The attack was on the Sunni district of al-Wihda in Tal Afar, where tensions have been rising between Shia and Sunni Muslim residents, mostly Turkish-speaking ethnic Turkmen.
The tit-for-tat violence in a town held up by US President George W Bush only a year ago as an example of progress towards peace in Iraq, graphically illustrates the challenge facing Mr Maliki in bridging an ever-widening sectarian divide.
There has been a sharp upsurge in violence in recent days outside Baghdad, epicentre of the communal bloodshed, where thousands of US and Iraqi security forces are focusing their efforts to halt a slide to full-scale civil war.
"Shia armed groups killed Sunni men inside their homes. More than 50 were killed," said Brigadier Najim al-Jubouri, mayor of Tal Afar, which is close to the Syrian border and the regional capital of Mosul. He said 18 people had been detained.
A security source who declined to be named said many of the suspects were policemen. A curfew was imposed as the Iraqi army took control of the city.
"I wish you can come and see all the bodies. They are lying in the grounds. We don't have enough space in the hospital. All of the victims were shot in the head," a doctor said by telephone from the main hospital in Tal Afar.
"Between 50 and 55 people were killed. I've never seen such a thing in my life," said the doctor, who refused to be named because he said he feared for his life. Another source at the hospital put the death toll at 45, while police said 50 were killed.
Major-General Khorshid Saleem, the head of the Third Army Division in Tal Afar, said the death toll was 70, with 30 wounded and 40 kidnapped.