In 24 hours since the attack on the Samarra mosque more than 150 people have died in armed clashes, massacres, suicide bombs and reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques.
Wednesday
Revered Shia shrine of Askari in Samarra bombed;
Policeman killed, four wounded in roadside bomb in Iskandariya, south of Baghdad;
Three US soldiers killed near Balad when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb and four killed in Hawija when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb;
12 prisoners removed from a prison in Basra and 11 killed by al-Mahdi gunmen, say police;
Iraq cancels all police and army leave and extends curfew hours in Baghdad and other cities to help staunch sectarian violence.
Thursday
Sunni religious authorities say 128 Sunni mosques have been attacked and three clerics killed;
US troops reduce presence around Baghdad holy sites;
47 people returning from a demonstration against the bombing of the mosque dragged from their cars in the province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, and shot dead by suspected Sunni insurgents. Police say 53 people killed in the city in the last 24 hours;
A bomb targeting an Iraqi army foot patrol in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, kills 16 people, eight civilians and eight soldiers, and wounds another 11 civilians and four soldiers. The colonel commanding the patrol as it walked through a busy city- centre market was among the dead. The Mujahideen Council claims responsibility for the attack;
Convoy of Iraq's minister of housing and reconstruction stoned in Samarra;
Gunmen kill a correspondent for al-Arabiya television and two members of her crew in Samarra;
At least 25 people killed in Basra; n Gunmen in two cars opened fire on a Sunni mosque in Baquba, killing one person;
Iraq's main Sunni Muslim bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, pulls out of negotiations for the formation of a new government, blaming the ruling Shia alliance for sectarian violence that has killed dozens of Sunnis in the past 24 hours;
President Jalal Talabani gathers political leaders for a crisis meeting at his home in Baghdad. Some Sunnis boycott meeting because of what they say was inadequate protection for Sunnis over two days.