Aug. 23, 2014 8:23 a.m. ET
A Shiite Muslim fighter takes part in a last combat training near the city of Najaf on Saturday, before joining government forces to fight Islamic State jihadists in the Jurf al-Sakhr area, south of Baghdad. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Officials attempting to form a unity government in Iraq sought to quell sectarian tensions on Saturday by sending a team of investigators to the scene of an attack a day earlier on a Sunni mosque that killed scores and is suspected to have been carried out by Shiite militia men.
Investigators, parliamentarians and military officials arrived at the scene of the massacre in Diyala province, in an apparent response to demands by Sunni politicians that the perpetrators of the attack be quickly identified and brought to justice.
The move was seen as an attempt to salvage a delicate political process to form a new, more inclusive government, as Iraq faces a violent insurgency led by Sunni militants calling themselves the Islamic State that has seized large parts of the country.
Officials from Iraq's Health Ministry said on Saturday that the death toll from Friday's attack had risen to 70. While Sunni figures in Diyala, a province about 100 miles northeast of Baghdad, said the attack was carried out by Shiite gunmen, authorities in Iraq's central government said the identities of perpetrators were being investigated. The security committee in the restive province suggested the massacre was conducted by members of the Islamic State in an effort to drive a wedge between Sunnis and Shiites as the groups seek reconciliation.
As the investigation began, in a separate incident a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into an Interior Ministry intelligence building in Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 35, according to Iraqi officials.
While the exact identities of the attackers on the mosque remained unclear Saturday, the incident had already taken a toll on Iraq's fragile political process.
Haider al-Abadi, Iraq's Prime Minister designate, has been negotiating with minority Sunni politicians to form a unity government after years of sectarian policies favoring the nation's Shiite majority by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who agreed to step down earlier this month under intense pressure.
Following Friday's attack, leaders of the three largest Sunni electoral blocs announced they would suspend their participation in negotiations over a new government until the perpetrators of the attacks are brought to justice.
Mr. Abadi condemned the attacks and called for an immediate investigation on Friday.
Forming a more inclusive government has been a key goal for Iraqis as they face the worst security crisis in a generation. The Islamic State, a group based in neighboring Syria that is also known as ISIS or ISIL, began a campaign in June to take over large swaths of Iraq, overrunning Iraq's military and threatening to march on Baghdad.
Along the way, they have massacred Shiites and Sunnis, along with other ethnic minorities who refuse to accept their fundamentalist vision of Islam.
Forming a unity government has been seen as the first step to battling the insurgency by encouraging Sunnis to reject the militants and help rebuild Iraq's decimated military. The U.S. has also indicated that any expansion of its limited airstrikes to support the Iraqi forces would be contingent on the Iraqi government coming together in a way that addresses Sunni grievances.
One major concern for Sunnis has been the government's reliance on Shiite militias, which have been supporting the weakened military's efforts to fight off the rapid Islamic State rise.
It remains unclear if the government will encourage the militias to disband as the military has struggled to take back territory seized by the Islamist militants.
Iraqi officials have called on the U.S. to expand its mission to support Iraqi forces with airstrikes, a strategy that has proved successful in beating back militants around key infrastructure. But President Barack Obama said the first American involvement in Iraq since troops formally pulled out in 2011 would be limited to areas where the militants have provoked humanitarian crises or where direct American interests are threatened.
Write to Tamer El-Ghobashy at tamer.el-ghobashy@wsj.com
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