Three Sunni mosques burned south of Baghdad
Pastor Dale Morgan
Thursday June 14, 1:42 PM Reuters
*
Three Sunni mosques burned south of Baghdad*
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three Sunni Muslim mosques were attacked and burned
south of Baghdad on Thursday, Iraqi police said, in apparent reprisal
attacks after suspected al Qaeda militants blew up the minarets of a
revered Shi'ite shrine.
Tens of thousands of Iraqi and U.S. soldiers were on the streets of
Baghdad and other cities enforcing curfews imposed after Wednesday's
bombing at Samarra's al-Askari mosque toppled its two golden minarets.
An attack on the same mosque in February 2006 unleashed waves of
sectarian violence in which tens of thousands of people were killed,
tipping Iraq close to all-out civil war between majority Shi'ites and
minority Sunni Arabs.
The latest Samarra attack, condemned by U.S. President George W. Bush
and other world leaders, immediately raised fears of similar retaliatory
violence.
Police said unidentified gunmen on Thursday attacked the al-Mustafa and
Huteen mosques in the town of Iskandariya, where the Sunni Grand Mosque
was destroyed on Wednesday. The al-Bashir mosque in nearby Mahaweel was
also attacked.
The streets of Baghdad rang with gunfire overnight as gunmen attempted
to attack a major Sunni mosque in the centre of the city, residents said.
The mosque attacks south of Baghdad happened a day before U.S.
commanders have said all American troop reinforcements would be in place
as part of a security crackdown in the capital involving 28,000 extra
U.S. soldiers.
The crackdown is aimed at securing the capital so Iraqi Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki's government can reach political targets set by
Washington aimed at promoting national reconciliation.