Baghdad, Iraq – Insurgents dragged five Shiite Muslim schoolteachers and their driver into a classroom, lined them against a wall and gunned them down Monday – slayings that reflect the inflamed sectarian divisions ahead of a crucial constitutional referendum.
The shooting was a rare attack on a school amid Iraq’s relentless violence, and it was particularly stunning because the gunmen targeted teachers in a school 30 miles south of Baghdad where the children were mainly Sunnis.
Elsewhere Monday, a suicide attack and roadside bombings killed 10 Iraqis and three Americans, bringing to at least 52 the number of people killed in the past two days.
The Iraqi and U.S. governments have warned that Sunni Arab insurgents are likely to increase their attacks ahead of the Oct. 15 national referendum.
Shiite leaders have called on their followers to refrain from revenge attacks against Sunnis, fearing a civil war could result, though Sunnis have accused Shiite militias of carrying out some killings of Sunni figures.
But in one of the first public calls for individual Shiites to take action, a prominent Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yaaqubi, issued a religious edict Monday allowing his followers to “kill terrorists before they kill.”
Earlier this month, al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared “all-out war” on Shiites and vowed to kill anyone participating in the referendum.
Leaders of Iraq’s Sunni minority are calling on their followers to vote against the constitution and defeat a charter they believe will fracture the country and seal the domination of the Shiite majority.
U.S. defense officials in Washington said Monday that a leading deputy to al-Zarqawi, identified as Abu Azzam, was killed this weekend.
CBS News, quoting Pentagon officials, reported that U.S. forces killed Azzam in a house raid in Baghdad on Sunday.
There have been few attacks on schools in Iraq, which have little protection.
Classes had just ended at the Al-Jazeera Elementary School in the village of Muelha, 30 miles south of Baghdad, when the shooting took place at about 1:15 p.m.
