Iraqi Shiite militiamen machine-gunned minority Sunni Muslims in a village mosque on Friday, killing dozens just as Baghdad is trying to build a cross-community government to fight Sunni militants whose rise has alarmed Western powers.
A morgue official in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, said 68 people had been killed in the sectarian attack on the Muslim day of prayer. Ambulances took the bodies 60 km (40 miles) to the provincial capital of Baquba, where Iranian-trained Shiite militias are powerful and act with impunity.
Attacks on mosques have in the past unleashed revenge killings in Iraq, where violence has returned to the levels of 2006-2007, the peak of a sectarian civil war.