His family huddled beneath the whistling sound of mortar shells

A coordinated series of car bombings and mortar attacks by Sunni insurgents – the deadliest yet since the American invasion in 2003 – has killed at least 161 Iraqis and wounded up to 260 at the Shi’ite district of Sadr City, northeast of Baghdad. They targeted several checkpoints and marketplaces at three busy streets leading into Sadr City from across the Army Canal, which separates it from the rest of Baghdad. [. . .]

The bombings at 3 p.m., Thursday, followed a bold attack by dozens of masked Sunni gunmen, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles, against the Health Ministry at Bab Al-Muadham in central Baghdad. The gunmen attempted to storm the ministry but were kept at bay by ministry guards. They continued to shoot at the ministry from the rooftops of surrounding buildings until U.S. and Iraqi forces arrived at the scene, two hours after the attack had started. [. . .] Shi’ite militiamen fired dozens of mortar shells at the Sunni districts of Adhamiya, Sulaikh and Fadhl, just south of Sadr City. A few shells hit the dome of the Imam Abu Hanifa shrine in Adhamiya. On the other side of the Tigris, the Umm Al-Qura Mosque, headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, at Ghazaliya was also attacked with mortar fire. Other districts that were targeted were Amil, Dora, Yarmouk and Jami’a. There were brief clashes at several areas of the city for the rest of the day.

My family in Baghdad huddled inside their bedroom while they listened to the whistling sound of mortar shells flying above their roof [. . .]

Shi'ite militiamen, some dressed in police uniform, attacked four mosques in a small Sunni enclave at Hurriya, west of Baghdad. Undeterred by the curfew, they burned six Sunnis alive and killed 19 others. Iraqi soldiers stood by and watched. Healing Iraq