32 killed as Pentagon warns of Iraq civil war

BAGHDAD: Iraqi insurgents slaughtered 32 people on Saturday after the Pentagon warned that the country was close to falling into a sectarian war.

Suspected Sunni gunmen dragged a group of travellers off a bus crossing the desert towards the Shiite holy city of Karbala and shot dead 11 Pakistani and three Indian men.

"They were coming in a big bus with children and women. The attackers freed the women and children and shot dead the men, execution-style," said interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalaf.

The murders came as Iraq was already braced for a possible backlash from Shiite militias after a synchronized series of bomb attacks in Baghdad on Thursday by suspected Sunni insurgents left 67 civilians dead.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki - whose coalition government is struggling to hold the divided country together - travelled to the Shiite holy city of Najaf to consult the faith's spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Sistani urged Maliki to quickly gain control of the violence.

"His eminence said when the government fails to do its duty in providing security, order and protection for citizens, this could pave the way for other powers to intercept and carry out this mission," Sistani's office said.

"This is very serious," he warned.

Sistani was alluding to the rise of Shiite militias, such as the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the Badr Organization of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a leading religious party.