Sunni Insurgents Kill 81 Shiites in 2 Days

Sunni insurgents resumed on Wednesday the attacks against the Shiites, the death toll after two separate explosions reaching 81 persons.

In the Shiite town of Kerbala, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest on a busy street, near the Imam Hussein shrine, Reuters informed.
The attack left 49 persons dead and 68 wounded.

In another incident, which took place 96 kilometers north of Baghdad, an insurgent hit a crowd of 100 persons who were mourning the death of a Shiite politician's nephew, killing 32 and wounding dozens.

An official of the Sunni Arab party condemned the Wednesday attack.
"The Islamic Party condemns such ugly acts that are aimed at dividing the country. The perpetrators want to cause divisions and hinder the political process in Iraq, but they will fail and we will establish a national unity government," Nassir al-Ani told the Associated Press.

Sunni-Shiite tensions have escalated after the December 15 parliamentary elections, the Sunni political groups demanding an international review for the fraud complaints.

The calm during elections vanished once a Shiite family was slaughtered in Sunni neighborhood, the insurgents cutting the throats of its 11 members.

Although the Sunni leaders said that there wouldn't be any negotiations with the Shiites and the Kurds, a politician with a party affiliated to the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance said that the leaders of the three groups were negotiating towards forming a new government

"We can say that the (three parties) are close to forming a new government. Meetings between the tickets will be resumed after announcing the final results of the elections," Ridha Jawad Taqi said.