Sectarian tensions continue to simmer in the predominantly ethnic Turkmen city of Tal Afar, just 90 miles from the Syrian border, as local officials try to minimize the fallout from Tuesday's massacre.

Just hours after a coordinated double truck bombing killed more than 80 people and wounded at least 200 more in mainly Shi'ite neighborhoods, military and local officials are claiming Iraqi Police officers and gunmen went on a murderous rampage of revenge, shooting as many as 70 Sunni men, women and children, some execution-style.

The governor of Nineveh province, which includes the city of Tal Afar, said Iraqi policemen who took part in the revenge shootings were arrested but have been released to prevent further unrest and possible rioting.

The latest allegations of security forces taking part in the reprisal massacre in Tal Afar come at a low point for the Iraqi Police, according to Time:

"After revelations that police forces have harbored death squads and kept secret torture chambers, the minister of interior was replaced last June, and in a recent attempt to purge sectarian partisans from its ranks, the ministry fired some 10,000 officers. Some saw a change in the right direction. U.S. generals cited examples of police successfully fighting off insurgents and gangs during the recent security push. And departing U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, in his farewell press conference Monday, said a recent increase in tips and cooperation from citizens showed that average Iraqis were starting to trust the Iraqi security forces."

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called for a full investigation into Wednesday's killings, and the Ministry of Interior has ordered the local Tal Afar police to stay in their stations and has sent reinforcements from the nearby city of Mosul.

According to a senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to AP because the findings have not been officially released, between 7,000 and 10,000 pounds of explosives were used in the deadliest blast, making it one of the largest explosions since the war began four years ago. It is unclear who is responsible, however, the “Islamic State of Iraq” – the local affiliate of al-Qa'ida – has claimed responsibility for the bombings.

However, according to Ahmed Hashim of the Naval War College who appeared on PBS Newshour Wednesday evening:

"The situation in the city has more to do with local grievances and identity conflicts between the Sunni Turkmen, and the Shia Turkmen. And it really is not al-Qaida who has infiltrated so much as the fact that what happened in 2003 is the formerly dominant Sunni-Turkmen majority there, that constitute 70 percent of the population, that controlled the police, the municipality, the security services. They were primarily the teachers, and also there was about 20,000 Turkmen who were veterans of the former Iraqi army. Suddenly, they felt themselves having been thrown out of power. And this is essentially their revenge on what they see as the empowerment of the Shia minority in the town, which has been helped by central power in Baghdad, which is, of course, now in the hands of the Shia."

US Army Gen. David Petreus has blamed Al Qaida for the sectarian violence, while claiming that the security plan remains "generally on track,", citing a drop in the number of bullet-riddled and tortured bodies found in and around Baghdad, and the recent capture of alleged high ranking members of the Mahdi Army militia, which is loyal to radical anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Gen Petreus went on to say, "certainly we're seeing some of the response by extremists on either side now as al-Qaida has continued to try to ignite sectarian violence".

Whether the attacks are orchestrated by foreign influences or not, in the aftermath of the tit-for-tat violence it is clear that the sectarian divisions are now deeper than ever. In an effort to defuse the violence and address current grievances, Gen. Petreus also stated that members of the U.S. military had held talks on bringing some insurgents not linked to al-Qaida into the political process, although he claimed not to have personally participated in the discussions.