Gunmen in Baghdad killed at least 15 Shi'ite pilgrims and wounded dozens today, raking vehicles with machinegun fire in the latest outbreak of sectarian violence that threatens Iraq with civil war.
Thirteen people returning from a major Shi'ite Muslim festival were killeed in an ambush in the Amriya district.
Earlier two people were killed and dozens wounded when a bus and a truck carrying pilgrims were attacked in two incidents.
The pilgrims were driving home a day after celebrating a major Shi'ite festival in Kerbala, south of the capital.
"We were on the highway when suddenly four cars stopped near us and began shooting," a man who gave his name as Allawi told Reuters from his hospital bed after one of the early attacks.
"This shows we have to strike at terrorism with an iron fist and we must unite and form a government as quickly as possible because people in the street can see there is no government," Hazim al-Araji, a senior aide to Shi'ite radical cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, told state television.
Police also reported the discovery of six more bodies on the streets of the capital, all apparent victims of the bloodshed between majority Shi'ites and once-dominant Sunnis which some Iraqi officials fear could expand into open warfare.
Rebels blasted a police station with grenade and mortar fire before dawn, killing four policemen in Madaen, southeast of Baghdad, in the second such attack in two days. Police said they had detained about 70 people in raids on local homes afterwards.