Violence linked to Shi'ite and Sunni Arab animosity has grown increasingly worse since Feb. 22, when bombs ravaged the golden dome of a Shi'ite mosque in predominantly Sunni Arab Samarra.
Sectarian tensions have run particularly high in Baghdad, Basra, and Diyala Province, a mixed Sunni Arab-Shi'ite region. And yesterday's attacks occurred days after terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi renewed his call for Sunni Arabs to take up arms against Shi'ites, whom he has vilified as infidels.
In the minibus ambush, a car and a sport utility vehicle stopped the vehicles near the town of Qara Tappah, about 75 miles northeast of Baghdad and near Diyala Province, said Haqi Ismail, 48, a witness.
Ismail said he had been driving his pickup behind the vans and was stopped, too. About 15 masked men wearing traditional robes known as a dishdashas forced everyone out of the vehicles, he said.
``They asked us to show our IDs, and then instructed us to stand in a line, separating the Sunni from the Shi'ite due to the IDs and also due to the faces," said Ismail, a Shi'ite Kurd.
He said the gunmen ordered the Shi'ites to lie down and before they opened fire one shouted, ``On behalf of Islam, today we will dig a mass grave for you. You are traitors."
Ismail said he was injured but did not move.
``One of the gunmen kicked me to be sure that I was dead," he said, speaking from his hospital bed in Sulaimaniyah, north of Qara Tappah.
Two of the victims were high school students, ages 17 and 18, and nine were students at al-Yarmouk University, ages 21 to 22, said Qara Tappah's mayor, Serwan Shokir. The rest were men in their mid- to late 30s, who worked as laborers or for the power company, the mayor said.
The Basra violence -- the car bomb Saturday and mosque raid early yesterday -- occurred days after Maliki declared a state of emergency in the city, vowing to crack down on gangs.
