Things seem to be falling apart even more rapidly:
BAGHDAD, Feb. 23 — The bodies of 40 men were found shot dead in four separate areas around Baghdad, an interior ministry spokesman said Thursday. The execution-style killings were not demonstrably connected to the bombing of a holy Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra Wednesday, but they came amid a surge of sectarian violence, street protests and recrimination in the wake of that attack.
In Samarra, armed men kidnapped and killed a reporter of al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based news channel, along with two of her crew. Atwar Bahjat, 26, was shot dead in northern Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, the channel reported.
