LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:
We're back with ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer.
Iraqi authorities are blaming al-Qaida for an overnight attack south of Baghdad that killed at least 24 people. Witnesses said that men in army uniform stormed three houses, handcuffed men and women and then executed them in the street.
It was a massacre reminiscent of the sectarian violence that plagued Iraq several years ago and it comes as Iraq enters a delicate post-election period and American troops wait to begin a major troop drawdown.
NPR's Baghdad bureau chief Quil Lawrence joins us from the Iraqi capital. Quil, any more details about the attack today?
QUIL LAWRENCE: Yes, after the - the area was cordoned off by police and military all day. We just heard from the government spokesman, they said that they have arrested 25 people. They say six have confessed. Now we're not sure how seriously to take that because there are very often instant confessions after these sort of incidents.
But they were saying - these military officials said that the men were actually disguised as American soldiers and even spoke a few words of English when they got inside these houses and attacked the people. They spoke in an Iraqi dialect. But this is a possibly a ruse to try and scare off local authorities.
They said that some of the dead were members of the Sunni Awakening, the Sunni fighters who joined with the Americans to fight al-Qaida and suggested that this could have been a simple revenge attack against them by al-Qaida and other associated Islamist groups.
WERTHEIMER: Well, what about repercussions from this attack? There have been reports of negotiations over the formation of a new Iraqi parliament. Does this massacre have any effect on that process?
LAWRENCE: It just seems to make it more urgent for Iraqis to get this government formed sooner rather than later. Authorities, both Iraqi and American, had warned that the longer this lag time happens, where there's something of a power vacuum, the more extremist groups might be able to exploit that empty seat at the top of the government to try and stir up sectarian tensions.
This is exactly the sort of attack that brings back terrible memories for Iraqis of the sectarian warfare where thousands and thousands were killed by Sunni and Shiite death squads. So, it's stirring up the fears of people being excluded in the next government. It's playing on people's fears that if a Shiite comes to power, that the Sunnis won't be safe and vice versa.
WERTHEIMER: Could this sort of violence prevent the American redeployment, taking troops out?
LAWRENCE: All of the indications we have from the American authorities here on the ground is that they're going ahead. They were planning to wait two months after the election to start this rapid drawdown. So we're one month in. In about four more weeks, we're expecting to see them pull out 45,000 troops by the end of August. They say they're flexible.
But at this point, it seems like it's a moving train. Some of these material and troops are headed for Afghanistan after all, and it seemed like it would take a huge uptick in violence for them to change their plans.
WERTHEIMER: NPR's Quil Lawrence reporting from Baghdad. Thank you very much.
LAWRENCE: Thank you, Linda. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
