Masked Gunmen Kill 21 Shiite Students
Firefight In Sunni Mosque Kills Nine As Sectarian Violence Continues
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Play CBS Video Video Sectarian Violence Erupts The bloodshed in Iraq escalated after gunmen stopped three minibuses and killed 21 Kurds and Shia, many of whom were students, in retaliation of eight murdered Sunni men. Elizabeth Palmer reports.
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Video Iraq's Gov't Still Deadlocked On a day when 21 people, many of whom were students, were killed during an ambush, Iraq's prime minister failed to reach a consensus on filling key security posts in the ministry. Teri Okita reports.
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Video State Of Emergency In Iraq A state of emergency has been declared by Iraqi's new prime minister in Basra, following another day of escalating violence that is hitting the war-torn country. Aleen Sirgany reports.
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A coffin of one of the dead is transported at the hospital in the town of Kalar, after gunmen killed 21 people including many high school students and wounded one after dragging passengers off buses in the town of Ain Laila, inbetween Qara Tappah and Baqouba, in Iraq Sunday, June 4, 2006. (AP)
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Haqi Ismail, one of the survivors of the attack, left, lies injured at a hospital in Sulaimaniyah, accompanied by his brother, center-left, and brother-in-law, center-right, after gunmen killed 21 people and wounded Ismail, Sunday, June 4, 2006. (AP)
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Iraqi police attend the scene after a suicide car bomber blew himself up in a crowded market in oil-rich southern Basra in Iraq killing at least 28 people and wounding more than 60 on Saturday, June 3, 2006. (AP Photo)
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An Iraqi hospital employee looks at severed heads put in plastic bags after unloading them from a cardboard box outside the morgue of a local hospital in Baqouba, June 3, 2006. (AFP Photo)
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A family grieves over the body of a dove-seller at al-Kindi hospital, after two bombs struck in quick succession at a Baghdad pet market, killing at least five people and wounding 57 others, June 2, 2006. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hato)
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Interactive Covering The Story Journalists covering the war in Iraq are sometimes part of the story as more are injured, killed or taken hostage.
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
In predominantly Shiite southern Basra, police hunting for militants stormed a Sunni Arab mosque early Sunday, just hours after a car bombing. The ensuing fire fight killed nine.
The two attacks dealt a blow to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's pledge to curb sectarian violence. He again failed to reach consensus Sunday among Iraq's ethnic and sectarian parties on candidates for interior and defense minister — posts he must fill to implement his ambitious plan to take control of Iraq's security from U.S.-led forces within 18 months.
Violence linked to Shiite and Sunni Arab animosity has grown increasingly worse since Feb. 22, when bombs ravaged the golden dome of a revered Shiite mosque in predominantly Sunni Arab Samarra.
Sectarian tensions have run particularly high in Baghdad, Basra and Diyala province, a mixed Sunni Arab-Shiite region. And Sunday's attacks came just days after terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi renewed his call for Sunni Arabs to take up arms against Shiites, whom he often vilifies as infidels.
In other developments:
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