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Lynchings in Baghdad a Gruesome Discovery

Police this week found four hung men dangling from electricity pylons in a Baghdad Shiite slum. The discovery came hours after car bombs and mortar shells ripped through busy market streets, killing at least 58 people and wounding more than 200. Members of al-Sadr`s Mahdi Army militia captured the four people found hanged in the Shiite ghetto, according to police and a member of al-Sadr`s organization, Sheik Amer al-Husseini.

The apparent vigilante justice in Sadr City underscored fears the bloody assault Sunday on the stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr would plunge Iraq into another frenzy of sectarian killing.

Bomb blasts in Baghdad and north of the capital - many of them targeting Iraqi police patrols - killed at least 11 more people Monday and wounded more than 40, including a U.S. soldier killed in a roadside bombing in east Baghdad. Addressing reporters in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, al-Sadr avoided blaming Sunni Muslims for the attacks and appealed for unity. The anti-American cleric instead blamed feared terror group al-Qaida in Iraq and U.S. forces.