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THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Iraqis who have fled fighting between security forces and al-Qaida inspired militants in their hometown of Tal Afar arrive in a car at Germawa camp for displaced Iraqis, in a hot dusty plain in the largely-autonomous Kurdish area of Dahuk, 260miles northwest of Baghdad. ByQassimAbdul-Zahra TheAssociatedPress BAGHDAD Signs emerged Tuesday of a reprisal sec- tarian slaughter of Sun- nis in Iraq, as police said pro-government Shiite mi- litiamen killed nearly four dozen detainees after insur- gents tried to storm the jail northeast of Baghdad. A local morgue official said many of the detainees had bullet wounds to the head and chest, though the Iraqi military insisted the Sunni inmates were killed by mortar shells in the at- tack on the facility outside the city of Baqouba. In Baghdad, meanwhile, the bullet-riddled bodies of four men in their late 20s or early 30s, presumably Sunnis, were found at dif- ferent locations in the Shi- ite neighborhood of Ben- ouk, according to police and morgue officials who spoke on condition of ano- nymity because they were not authorized to talk with the media. Also Tuesday, a car bomb in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City district killed 12 peo- ple and wounded 30 in a crowded outdoor market, police and hospital officials said. No one claimed re- sponsibility for the bomb- ing, but attacks targeting Shiite districts are routinely the work of Sunni militants. The Sadr City deaths take to at least 22 the number of people killed in violence in Baghdad on Tuesday. The discovery was a grim reminder of a dark chap- ter in Iraq's history when nearly a decade ago the city woke up virtually ev- ery morning to find dozens of bodies dumped in the streets, trash heaps or in the Tigris river with torture marks or gunshot wounds. The allegation of Shi- ite killings of Sunnis near Baqouba and in Bagh- dad were the first hints of the beginnings of a re- turn to sectarian warfare that nearly tore the coun- try apart in 2006 and 2007. Sunni militants also have been accused of atrocities — an apparent attempt to provoke Shiite militias into revenge attacks that would strengthen the hand of an al-Qaida splinter group within Iraq's Sunni com- munity. A U.N. commission warned Tuesday that "a re- gional war in the Middle East draws ever closer" as Sunni insurgents advance across Iraq to control ar- eas bridging the Iraq-Syria frontier. It said Iraq's tur- moil will have "violent re- percussions" in Syria, most dangerously the rise of sec- tarian violence as "a direct consequence of the domi- nance of extremist groups." During the United States' eight-year presence in Iraq, U.S. forces acted as a buf- fer between the two Islamic sects, though with limited success. The U.S. military withdrew at the end of 2011, but it is now being pulled back in — albeit so far in far fewer numbers. The fighting around the jail was the closest to Bagh- dad since the al-Qaida breakaway group the Is- lamic State of Iraq and the Levant began its lightning advance, seizing several key northern cities in the Sunni heartland last week. There were conflicting details about the clashes in the al-Kattoun district near Baqouba, the capi- tal of Diyala province and one of the bloodiest battle- fields of the U.S.-led war, and on how the detainees were killed. The city is 40 miles northeast of the Iraqi capital. Reprisalkillingsonrise am id s ec ta ri an fi gh ti ng IRAQ By Hamza Hendawi The Associated Press BAGHDAD The Iraqi sol- diers tell of how they can hardly live with the shame of their rout under the on- slaught of the Islamic mil- itants. Their command- ers disappeared. Pleas for more ammunition went un- answered. Troops ran from post to post only to find them already taken by gun- men, forcing them to flee. "I see it in the eyes of my family, relatives and neigh- bors," one lieutenant-colo- nel who escaped the mili- tants' sweep over the north- ern city of Mosul said. "I am as broken and ashamed as a bride who is not a virgin on her wedding night." Iraq's military has been deeply shaken by their col- lapse in the face of fighters led by the al-Qaida break- away group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, who in the course of just over a week overran Mosul then stormed toward Baghdad, seizing town after town, several cities and army base after army base over a large swath of territory. The impact is hurting efforts to rally the armed forces to fight back. Shiite militiamen and volunteers have had to fill the void as the regular army struggles to regroup. Top commanders have been put under investiga- tion. Conspiracy theories are running rampant to ex- plain the meltdown. Some Shiite allies of Prime Min- ister Nouri al-Maliki have accused Kurds in the north of encouraging the military collapse so they could grab territory and weapons for themselves — an accusation that they've provided no proof for but that is strain- ing already tense ties with the Kurdish autonomous zone, where officials deny the claim. On Tuesday, al-Maliki retired three generals who had been deployed in Mo- sul and ordered legal pro- ceedings against them. He also dismissed a brig- adier general and ordered his court martial in absen- tia. He said he planned to retire off or court martial more senior officers, but gave no details. Already he had ordered the questioning of the mili- tary's Chief of Joint Opera- tions Gen. Abboud Gambar and the ground forces com- mander Gen. Ali Gheidan, according to security of- ficials who spoke on con- dition of anonymity be- cause of the sensitivity of the subject. The two face no charges and no legal ac- tion has been taken against them. Al-Maliki has also vowed to bring the full weight of military law, including the execution of deserters, on anyone who is found out to have fled the battle. Al-Maliki is trying to turn the armed forces around. He told army com- manders and volunteers in a rally south of Baghdad this week that the rout served as a much needed wake-up call. He said it would lead to the exposure and pun- ishment of military com- manders and politicians he accuses of betraying their country. He has also cryp- tically blamed conspiracies, acts of treachery and med- dling Arab nations. The blow was particu- larly harsh in a country that has traditionally prided it- self on the prowess of its soldiers, with the faith of its Shiite majority immersed in a narrative of martyrdom that is rooted in the fabled bravery of its saints. In an attempt to restore faith in the armed forces, state-run Iraqiya television has been airing little over the past week besides clips of troops and police march- ing or in action, helicopters strafing what is purportedly militants' positions and sol- diers and policemen per- forming traditional danc- ing with civilians. Members of the political coalition led by al-Maliki openly accused the Kurd- ish self-rule government of collusion with the Is- lamic militants in the cap- ture of Mosul, Iraq's second- largest city, by doing noth- ing to prevent its fall. They said Kurdish fighters ille- gally seized large quanti- ties of weapons and equip- ment left behind by fleeing Iraqi troops. After the seizure of Mo- sul, Kurdish fighters de- ployed in the vital oil city of Kirkuk in the north and parts of Diyala prov- ince northeast of Baghdad that the Kurds have long claimed as their own. Al-Maliki's allies have not produced evidence to back up their claims, which the Kurds categorically de- nied. The Kurds say they moved into the areas to pro- tect them after Iraqi gov- ernment forces left. Oth- erwise, Islamic State fight- ers would have taken them, they argue. IRAQ Humiliation at rout hits national military hard "I am as broken and ashamed as a bride who is not a virgin on her wedding night." — Anonymous lieutenant- colonel who escaped militant sweep of Mosul Paid Advertisement WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2014 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 5 B