Vengeful Shi'ites kill 25

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BAGHDAD -- Shi'ite militiamen yesterday doused six Sunni Arabs with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by, amid attacks on mosques that left 19 other Sunnis dead.

The violence was seen as revenge for the slaughter of at least 215 Shi'ites in the Sadr City slum the day before.

The mosque attacks took place after the Iraqi government, attempting to stop the nation's slide into civil war, imposed a sweeping curfew in the capital. Officials shut down the international airport and closed Iraq's main outlet to shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf.

Shi'ite militiamen of the Mahdi's Army, armed with machines guns and rocket-propelled grenades, swept through the Hurriyah neighborhood near an Iraqi army post. The militiamen burned four mosques and several homes, and attacked worshippers as they left services, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said.

Followers of radical anti-American Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warned they would suspend their membership in parliament and the Cabinet if Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki meets with President Bush in Jordan next week, a member of parliament said.

Legislator Qusai Abdul-Wahab, an al-Sadr follower, blamed U.S. forces for Thursday's bombings in Sadr City because they failed to provide security.

"We say occupation forces are fully responsible for these acts, and we call for the withdrawal of occupation forces or setting a timetable for their withdrawal," Mr. Abdul-Wahab said.

Mr. Bush, who was spending the Thanksgiving holiday at Camp David, said through a spokesman that he would stick to his plans for the summit.

Mahdi's Army gunmen loyal to Sheik al-Sadr had begun to take over the mixed neighborhood of Hurriyah during the summer and a majority of its Sunni residents had fled.

Three Sunni mosques elsewhere in Baghdad came under attack later in the day, and in Sadr City, a U.S. helicopter shot back at Shi'ite militiamen who opened fire on it from the ground, residents said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.