46 bodies found in wave of Iraqi violence
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-23 21:24

Also Thursday, thousands of protesters carrying Shiite flags and banners marched through parts of Baghdad and the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Shiite leaders called upon the people of Najaf to go to Samarra to defend the shrine.

Many religious and political leaders called for calm. "We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. "We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war."

Talabani, a Kurd, summoned political leaders to a meeting Thursday to ensure the violence does not derail talks aimed at forming a national unity government after December parliamentary elections. The negotiations — which U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope will help dent the deadly Sunni-driven insurgency — have bogged down over sharp differences between Iraq's Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab parties.

Spokesmen for the Iraqi Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab faction, said they would not attend Talabani's meeting and would freeze talks with Kurdish and Shiite parties pending an apology for reprisal attacks against more Sunni mosques.

"We want a clear condemnation from the government which didn't do enough yesterday to curb those angry mobs," said Dr. Salman al-Jumaili, a member of the Accordance Front. "There was even a kind of cooperation with the government security forces in some places in attacking the Sunni mosques."

U.S. military units in the Baghdad area were told Thursday morning to halt all but essential travel. Commanders feared that convoys might be caught up in demonstrations or road blocks.

President Bush pledged American help to restore the mosque after the bombing, which dealt a severe blow to U.S. efforts to keep Iraq from falling deeper into sectarian violence.

"The terrorists in Iraq have again proven that they are enemies of all faiths and of all humanity," Bush said. "The world must stand united against them, and steadfast behind the people of Iraq."

No one was reported injured in the bombing of the shrine in Samarra. But dozens of people, including three Sunni clerics, were killed in the reprisal attacks that followed, mainly in Baghdad and predominantly Shiite provinces to the south.

The country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, sent instructions to his followers forbidding attacks on Sunni mosques and called for seven days of mourning.

But he hinted, as did Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, that religious militias could be given a bigger security role if the government cannot protect holy shrines — an ominous sign of the Shiite reaction ahead.