BAGHDAD, (Reuters) – A shooting and bombing attack on a bus near Baghdad killed 52 prisoners and nine policemen yesterday, Ministry of Justice sources said, as politicians faced pressure to form a power-sharing government that can tackle a Sunni insurgency.
The bus was transporting prisoners from a military base in the town of Taji to Baghdad when it was hit by roadside bombs, the sources said. Gunmen then opened fire. The attack left a burned shell of the vehicle along a rural road.
Much of Iraq’s recent bloodshed is linked to sectarian divisions that have deepened since Sunni militants formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized large swathes of northern Iraq last month and declared an Islamic empire.
Sunni militants have been carrying out attacks around the southern edge of Baghdad while in response, Shi’ite militias have been active in rural districts of Baghdad, abducting Sunnis they suspect of militancy. Many later turn up dead.
