BAGHDAD — Shiite militiamen flooded a Baghdad neighborhood Sunday, setting up checkpoints and singling out and killing at least 36 young Sunni Arab men in a spasm of violence that pushed the city deeper into sectarian warfare.
The execution-style killings also set off a political firestorm. One Sunni leader accused the government of negligence, but Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shiite, played down the events, insisting that the "situation in Baghdad is under control."
As dusk settled, a pair of car bombs, apparently set off by Sunni Arab insurgents, damaged a Shiite mosque in a northern Baghdad neighborhood, killing at least 19 worshipers and wounding 59.
And this morning, two explosions rocked the heavily Shiite Sadr City neighborhood in eastern Baghdad near a row of shops selling used car parts. Initial reports said seven people were killed and 17 wounded.
The violence Sunday came the same day the U.S. military announced that four more American soldiers had been charged with raping and killing a young Iraqi woman and slaying three members of her family in March. The four were charged with rape and murder; a fifth soldier was charged with dereliction of duty. None was named.
Last week, a former U.S. Army private, Steven D. Green, was charged with rape and murder in federal court in Charlotte, N.C. He pleaded not guilty.
The sectarian violence underscored a dramatic worsening of security in the capital even after the formation of a government in May and the imposition of a massive security operation by Iraqi troops and police. It also raised fears that the beleaguered country might soon dissolve into civil war.
Sunni Arab politicians, who have threatened to pull out of the nascent government, blamed the violence on Shiites, demanding that security forces crack down on militias, which are believed to operate in part out of the security services.
"Acts of militias are now being expanded in Baghdad, and they have become a source of concern and harm to people," said Iraqi Vice President Tariq Hashimi, the head of the largest Sunni party, adding that the government needed to "safeguard the lives of the innocent, who have become targets for these militias."
Violence in the religiously mixed Jihad neighborhood began after a suicide bombing Saturday night near the Zahra Shiite mosque killed at least eight worshipers and passersby, officials said.
