The leader of a Shia militia in Iraq appealed for calm after Shi'ite gunmen stormed a Sunni Muslim neighbourhood in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 42 people in the city's bloodiest street killings yet.
"I urge all government and popular forces to exercise restraint and take responsibility in front of God first and society secondly," cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters are part of the national unity government, said in a statement.
The Interior Ministry said Shi'ite militias shot dozens of people in western Jihad district, pulling some from cars at fake police checkpoints and killing them close to a Shi'ite mosque where a car bomb had killed three people on Saturday.
Police and Sunni politicians blamed rogue police commandos and Sadr's Mehdi Army militia for the killings. Officials from Sadr's movement denied any involvement.
Sadr, whose supporters have waged two rebellions against US forces in Iraq, has made repeated calls for an end to the US occupation. He blamed Sunday's violence on a "Western plan aimed at sponsoring a civil and sectarian war between brothers". Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who last month unveiled a national reconciliation plan, has vowed to disband the militias, which have ties to political parties.
Leaders of the disaffected Sunni minority community have accused Shi'ite militias of targeting Sunnis.