At least forty-seven people have been killed in Baghdad since the bombing of a major Shia shrine sparked violence across Iraq.

The bodies of 23 men were found dumped at six sites, most of them in predominantly Shia parts of Baghdad, police said on Thursday.

The victims were all shot and most had their hands bound, police said.

The grisly finds come amid reprisal attacks for the bombing on

The bodies of three Iraqi journalists, including a well-known correspondent for Al-Arabiya television, were found on Thursday near Samarra, police and the Arabic network said.

Al Arabiya's Atwar Bahjat and two colleagues from another media company were in the city to cover the bombing of the Shia shrine. Their employers lost contact with them on Wednesday night.

In another incident, armed men in police uniforms seized 11 Sunni men from a prison in the mainly Shia city of Basra on Wednesday and later killed them, police said.

Among those killed in the apparent reprisal attack were two Egyptians. The others were Iraqis.

The shrine bombing triggered more than 90 reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques.

In Washington, a senior US official said the al-Qaida was suspected of being behind the attack on the Shia shrine.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Iraqi president said extremists were pushing the country towards civil war.

"We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," said president Jalal Talabani. "We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war."

After the attacks, one top Shia political leader accused Khalilzad of sharing some responsibility for the bombing of the shrine because of that stance.

"These statements ... gave green lights to terrorist groups. And, therefore, he shares in part of the responsibility," said Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the former commander of its militia.

No group claimed responsibility for the assault.

In the hours after the bombing, more than 90 Sunni mosques were attacked with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, burned or taken over by Shia, said the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni political group.

At least seven people, including three clerics, were killed in the attacks, which were mainly in Baghdad and predominantly Shia provinces south of the country, the party said.

Major Sunni groups joined in condemning the attack.

Large protests erupted in Shia parts of Baghdad and in cities throughout the Shia heartland to the south. In Basra, Shia community members traded rifle and rocket-propelled grenade fire with guards at the office of the Iraqi Islamic Party.

Shia protesters later set fire to a Sunni shrine containing the seventh century tomb of Talha bin Obeid-Allah, a companion of Prophet Muhammad (), on the outskirts of the southern city. Police found 11 bodies of Sunni Muslims, most of them shot in the head, in Basra, police Captain Mushtaq Kadhim said.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Iraqi inspects the damage inside a Sunni mosque in Baghdad, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006. (AP)