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03/01/2006:

"Multiple Bombings in Baghdad Kill 56"

Two explosions hit Shiite targets in northern Baghdad after sundown Tuesday, killing at least 15 people and raising the day's death toll from a series of attacks around Baghdad that killed at least 56 and wounded scores, authorities said.

In the latest attacks, police officials said either a car bomb or a mortar hit the Abdel Hadi Chalabi mosque in the Hurriyah neighborhood, killing 14 people and wounding 62.

Mortar fire at the Imam Kadhim shrine in the Kazimiyah neighborhood on the opposite side of the Tigris River killed one and wounded 10.

A Sunni mosque in the Hurriyah neighborhood had been bombed before dawn Tuesday.
abcnews.go.com


Sunnis say they're mobilizing to combat Shiites, protect mosques
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni Muslims from across central Iraq, alarmed by how easily Shiite Muslim fighters had attacked their mosques during last week's clashes, said Monday that they were sending weapons to Baghdad and were preparing to dispatch their own fighters to the Iraqi capital in case of further violence.

While no central Sunni group appeared to be coordinating the movement of weapons and people, the widespread claims were seen as the first evidence that Sunnis are organizing to combat Shiite militias, which had mustered thousands of armed men to control many Baghdad neighborhoods after last week's bombing of one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines.