Peeance and Freeance

AFP/Essam Al-Sudani

An Iraqi soldier walks on blood in the entrance to a mosque in Basra.

Meanwhile, Gunman dragged 24 students from their cars and executed them as violence raged across Iraq on Sunday.

The victims included youths of around 15-16 years who were on their way to the bigger regional town of Baquba to write end of term exams, but also elderly men, they said.

"(The attackers) dragged them one by one from their cars and executed them," said a police official.

The killings took place in Diyala province, scene of frequent attacks by insurgents waging a campaign of bombings and shootings to topple the U.S.-backed, Shi'ite-led government.

Some tried to flee but were gunned down, a police source said. Reuters photographs showed six men shot in the chest, including one old man and five young men.

In Iraq's south, a Sunni religious group accused security forces in the Shi'ite-run city of Basra of killing 12 unarmed worshippers in a mosque early on Sunday, but police said they had returned fire and shot dead nine terrorists.

The incident came just hours after a car bomb killed 28 people in Basra, challenging a state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to crack down on criminal gangs and Shi'ite factions whose feuding threatens oil exports.

So much for that turning point.