Maliki appeals for unity as blasts hit Baghdad

BAGHDAD, July 10 (Reuters) Iraq's prime minister today pleaded for Iraqis to ''unite as brothers'' as a fresh spasm of violence gripped Baghdad, where 60 people were killed at the weekend in a dramatic escalation of sectarian bloodletting.

Two bomb blasts in a Shi'ite neighbourhood killed 12 and wounded dozens, while gunmen ambushed a commuter bus in a Sunni district and shot dead seven people. Militiamen, believed to be Shi'ite, fought gunbattles in a southern Sunni district.

''Our destiny is to work together in brotherhood to defeat terrorism and insurgency,'' Maliki, a Shi'ite, told the Kurdish regional parliament in northern Iraq. ''We have no choice but to defeat those who want to return us to the black days.'' Fearing Iraq is moving ever closer to all-out civil war, President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, had appealed for calm, warning that the country was on ''the edge of a slippery slope''.

A new surge in violence between majority Shi'ites, oppressed under Saddam Hussein but now politically empowered, and his once dominant fellow Sunni Arabs has laid bare a deepening schism, despite Maliki's efforts to promote national reconciliation.

Two bombs blasted a Baghdad area that is a stronghold of Shi'ite militia fighters early today, a day after suspected Shi'ite gunmen stormed through a Sunni area and killed over 40.

Twelve people were killed and 62 wounded, police said, in the car bomb blasts near a telephone exchange in the eastern Talbiya district. It is a bastion of the Mehdi Army militia of radical, young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Police in the notoriously violent Sunni district of Amriya found four bodies on a commuter bus. Three others, including a woman, lay in the street nearby, apparently dragged from the bus and shot. Their religious affiliation was not immediately clear.

In the mostly Shi'ite western district of Ammil, unknown gunmen opened fire on an unmarked car carrying four policemen, killing three, police said.

There were conflicting reports about clashes involving suspected Shi'ite militia fighters in the Sunni Dora district in southern Baghdad, where the Interior Ministry imposed a curfew until 8 am (0930 hrs IST tomorrow).

One police source said six militiamen lay dead on Dora bridge after a shootout with residents. Another said the gunbattles involved militias on one side and the Iraqi police and army on the other and that five soldiers were wounded.

NATIONAL RECONCILIATION Sadr's group rejected accusations by Sunni leaders and police that it was behind killings in the mainly Sunni Jihad district of west Baghdad yesterday, when bands of gunmen set up roadblocks and hauled people with Sunni-sounding names from cars to shoot them. They also killed others in streets and homes.

Those killings, the worst of their kind yet seen in the city, came after a car bomb attack on a Shi'ite mosque in Jihad on Saturday evening and were followed by a double car bombing at another Shi'ite mosque late yesterday that killed 19.

Maliki has vowed to disband militias, some tied to parties in his government, that are carving Baghdad into sectarian no-go areas. But he faces an uphill struggle as most, including the Mehdi Army, have powerful allies inside the ruling coalition.

Simmering tensions between Shi'ites and Sunnis, mistrustful of the new Shi'ite-dominated coalition government and the backbone of the insurgency, exploded into open conflict after a revered Shi'ite mosque was bombed in February.

Thousands have since been killed in tit-for-tat killings, mainly in Baghdad. Maliki's US-backed government of Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds has struggled to contain the violence that has also forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.

Maliki has promoted a national reconciliation plan to end the communal bloodshed and end the insurgency, but critics, including some Sunni leaders, say it is too vague.

Nevertheless, British ambassador William Patey said ''now more than ever'' Iraqis needed to back the plan, to defeat ''those criminals'' trying to plunge the country into civil war.

The trial of Saddam and seven co-accused resumed to hear final defence arguments but Saddam's lawyers said they would boycott it until authorities met a series of demands, including an inquiry into the killing of a colleague last month.

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