Fred Harteis News Articles - Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American commander in Iraq, said today that “terrorists and death squads” were responsible for the surge in sectarian killings here in recent weeks, and that more American forces may need to move into the capital to prevent the deadly cycle from escalating even further.

His remarks came on a day in which 30 more people were killed and 37 wounded in and around Baghdad, including 20 people who were kidnapped from a bus station 60 miles north of the city and executed, Iraqi and American officials said.

A few hours before General Casey spoke, Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, told Iraqi lawmakers that a program of national reconciliation was the country’s “last chance” to avoid slipping to chaos.

General Casey said Sunni Arab terrorist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda were killing Shiite civilians in Baghdad to show their continued power in the aftermath of an American missile strike last month that killed the leader of Al Qaeda insurgents in Iraq, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi.

In response to the killings by Sunni Arabs, the general said, Shiite “death squads” in Baghdad had begun indiscriminately killing Sunni residents, including dozens who were seemingly randomly pulled from their cars and homes on Sunday and executed on the street.

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Source: NyTimes.com

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