Enraged local Shi'ites, allegedly including a number of police, rampaged through Tal Afar for more than two hours overnight, killing dozens of military-aged Sunni men with a shot to the head in revenge for the coordinated bombings that killed approximately 50 people on Tuesday.

Accounts on the number of casualties in the northern Iraq city varied, though most put the figure between 45 and 60. Reuters cited a local doctor:

"I wish you can come and see all the bodies. They are lying in the grounds. We don't have enough space in the hospital. All of the victims were shot in the head," a doctor told Reuters by telephone from the main hospital in Tal Afar.

The hospital official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said the victims were men between the ages of 15 and 60, and they were killed with a shot to the back of the head.

The AP is reporting that Ali al-Talafari, a Sunni member of the local Turkomen Front Party, says that the Iraqi Army has detained 18 local policemen after they were identified by the victims' families.

An aide to Maliki has announced an inquiry into reports that police officials took part in the massacre.

Reuters also reports:

Army troops later moved into the Sunni areas to stop the violence and a curfew was slapped on the entire town, according to Wathiq al-Hamdani, the provincial police chief and his head of operations, Brig. Abdul-Karim al-Jibouri.

"The situation is under control now," said al-Hamdani. "The local Tal Afar police have been confined to their bases and policemen from Mosul are moving there to replace them."