Clashes in Baghdad after 27 bodies found

BAGHDAD, Jan 6 (Reuters) Iraqi police clashed with gunmen in central Baghdad today when they went to investigate a report that 27 bodies had been found in one location near a cemetery, police and interior ministry sources said.

A prominent Sunni Arab politician said militias had attacked residents in the area in a bid to force them out.

A source at Baghdad police headquarters said local police in the area near Haifa Street, a traditional Sunni area in central Baghdad, had found 27 bodies and called in reinforcements. When they arrived, they came under fire from gunmen.

The police source said they then called in support from US forces. An interior ministry source also reported clashes.

A statement from the General Gathering of the Iraqi People, a Sunni Arab party led by outspoken politician Adnan al-Dulaimi, appeared to refer to the incident and said militias backed by government forces had attacked residents in the Haifa Street area.

''This attack targeted the houses of locals in this area. The aim is to force these people to leave the area,'' it said, accusing the government of ''double standards'' in failing to crack down on Shi'ite militias blamed by Sunni Arabs for operating death squads.

Dozens of bodies are found every day around Baghdad, many tortured and shot dead, the victims of militia death squads which Sunni Arabs and Washington say frequently operate with the collusion of a police force widely infiltrated by militias.

Sectarian attacks, bombings, mortars and death squads are killing hundreds of people every week and driving people out of their homes as Baghdad becomes increasingly divided on sectarian lines amid fears Iraq is descending into full-scale civil war.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused a leading Sunni Muslim clerics' group of stirring up sectarian tension by saying that militias were preparing attacks on Sunni Arab neighbourhoods in Baghdad.

Sectarian tension has been high for the past week, since Maliki, a Shi'ite Islamist, rushed through the hanging of Sunni former president Saddam Hussein and video circulated showing him being taunted on the gallows by supporters of a Shi'ite cleric.

Maliki announced today what appears to be a major crackdown on Shi'ite militias as well as Sunni insurgents in the capital, vowing commanders in each neighbourhood would come down hard on illegal groups, ''regardless of their sect or politics''.

REUTERS AB MIR RN2000