Iraqi forces storm Sunni protest site

BAGHDAD - Security forces stormed a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq on Tuesday, sparking deadly clashes in several towns and sharply intensifying rage at the Shiite-led government.

The unrest and a spate of other attacks, mostly targeting Sunni mosques, killed at least 56 people.

The violence could mark an ominous turning point in the four-month Sunni protest movement, which is posing a stubborn challenge to Iraq's stability a decade after the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks on three Sunni mosques, and it was unclear whether there was any connection to the storming of the protest camp. Sunni extremists such as al-Qaeda in the past have targeted moderate Sunnis.

But if Shiite militias were behind the attacks, it would raise fears of a return to the open sectarian fighting of 2006 and 2007, when Iraq was on the brink of civil war.

The raid on the protest camp drew condemnations from Sunni leaders and foreign diplomats and raised fears that Iraq is being pushed back toward all-out sectarian fighting.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki swiftly announced the formation of a special ministerial committee to investigate what happened, underscoring worries that anger over the incident could spill out of control.

"What happened today is a total disaster," parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, said at a televised news conference. He appealed for calm and called for those responsible to stand trial.

"If this bloodshed spreads to other provinces, God forbid, there will be a huge fire that we cannot put out," he said.

The security crackdown began at dawn in the former insurgent stronghold of Hawija, about 150 miles north of Baghdad, days after a checkpoint jointly run by the police and army near the town came under attack.