Anti-Sunni bombing toll 76

BAGHDAD: Bombs ripped through Sunni areas in Baghdad and surrounding areas killing at least 76 people in the deadliest day in Iraq in more than eight months.
The attacks followed two days of bombings targeting Shiites, including bus stops and outdoor markets, with a total of 130 people killed since Wednesday.
Nobody claimed responsibility for Friday’s attacks, but the fact they occurred in mainly Sunni areas raised suspicion that Shiite militants were involved. The bombs also were largely planted in the areas, as opposed to the car bombings and suicide attacks that Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents are known to use.
Suspected Sunni militants killed four state-backed Sunni fighters in Iraq yesterday, security sources said, apparently viewing them as collaborators with the Shiite-led government.
The four “Sahwa” militia fighters were killed in an attack on their headquarters on the outskirts of Garma, 9 km east of Fallujah.
Gunmen also ambushed and kidnapped 10 Sunni policemen near Ramadi, the capital of Anbar.
Talal Al-Zobaie, a Sunni lawmaker, called on politicians across the religious and ethnic spectrum to put aside their differences and focus on protecting the nation.
“The terrorist attacks on Sunni areas today and on Shiite areas in the past two days are an indication that some groups and regional countries are working hard to reignite the sectarian war in Iraq,” he said. “The government should admit that it has failed to secure the country and the people, and all security commanders should be replaced by efficient people who can really confront terrorism. Sectarianism that has bred armies of widows and orphans in the past is now trying to make a comeback in this country, and everybody should be aware of this.”
“It is not a coincidence that the attacks were concentrated in some areas of one sect and then moved the next day into areas of the other sect,” said Jawad Al-Hasnawi, a lawmaker with the bloc loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr.
Al-Hasnawi added: “Today and yesterday, the Iraqi people paid for the failure of government security forces. Everybody should expect darker days full of even deadlier attacks.”