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“They also went into certain Sunni houses and killed everyone inside,” a witness told AFP news agency. Retaliation Officials say they are getting reports of drive-by shootings in the area, and the death toll is expected to rise.

Gunmen in the Iraqi capital Baghdad have killed at least 40 people at a fake checkpoint, in an apparent sectarian attack against Sunni Muslims.
Police say Shia militants stopped cars in the western Jihad district, separated Sunnis and shot them.

There has been an upsurge in sectarian violence in Iraq in recent months, raising fears of a civil war.

Militias have in the past used police uniforms to carry out attacks but the scale of this incident is exceptional.

Shia militiamen entered Jihad on Sunday morning, pulled people from cars and killed Sunni Muslims, according to police.

“They also went into certain Sunni houses and killed everyone inside,” a witness told AFP news agency.

Retaliation

Officials say they are getting reports of drive-by shootings in the area, and the death toll is expected to rise.

Security forces have sealed off the area and imposed a curfew, in an effort to prevent revenge attacks.

Officials said the shooting could be in retaliation for a car bomb that killed at least two people at a nearby Shia mosque on Saturday.

“For the past five months Shias have been killed and evicted from the neighbourhood,” the imam of the mosque told AFP.

A wave of sectarian killings has engulfed many parts of Iraq - especially Baghdad - since the bombing in February of a revered Shia shrine in Samarra.

Sunni Arabs say government-backed Shia militias are behind many attacks. But officials have denied any involvement.

In other violence on Sunday, an Iraqi army intelligence officer was shot dead in Karbala, south of Baghdad.

Several policemen and civilians were also killed in separate attacks around the country.

[1] news.bbc.co.uk…