Baghdad, Iraq – At least 50 people were killed in Iraq on Sunday in a catalog of violence that included a mortar attack, military firefights, roadside bombs and other explosions.
In addition, the U.S. military reported the deaths of four soldiers and airmen, including the two pilots of an AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter that went down during a combat patrol southwest of Baghdad at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
In the single deadliest incident Sunday, at least nine people, including three women and two children, were killed in a mortar barrage on the south Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, a predominantly Sunni Arab area, police said.
The bodies of 10 men, all blindfolded and hands bound, were found shot in three areas of west Baghdad, police said.
About 40 miles north of Baghdad, in the village of Gubba, insurgents blew up the local Shiite mosque, leaving it in ruins and killing a guard who was posted inside, Baqubah police Col. Adnan Lafta said.
The killings and attacks, which seemed to target specific religious communities, are the sort that military and political analysts say are being used by sectarian and insurgent groups to foment strife between Iraq’s minority Sunni Arabs and majority Shiite Muslims and push the country toward civil war.
In other statements Sunday, the military said two U.S. soldiers on foot patrol were killed by a roadside bomb in central Baghdad on Saturday.
