Mosque Minarets blown up at Iraq Shi'ite shrine
Pastor Dale Morgan
Thursday June 14, 1:55 AM Reuters
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Mosque Minarets blown up at Iraq Shi'ite shrine*
By Mariam Karouny
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Suspected al Qaeda militants blew up on Wednesday
the minarets of a revered Shi'ite mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra,
target of a 2006 bomb attack that unleashed a tidal wave of sectarian
violence.
Fearing renewed bloodshed, Iraq's government imposed a three-day curfew
in Baghdad as Shi'ite and Sunni political and religious leaders called
on their followers to remain calm.
But police said gunmen blew up the Sunni Grand Mosque in Iskandariya
south of Baghdad, totally destroying it. A second was damaged in another
blast and attackers set fire to a mosque in Baghdad's Bayaa district. No
injuries were reported.
A grim mood descended on the capital as people hurried home before the
start of the curfew. The streets were largely empty apart from
patrolling Iraqi police and soldiers.
Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders met the
top U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and U.S.
ambassador Ryan Crocker, agreeing on political and military steps aimed
at "promoting restraint", U.S. officials said.
U.S. military spokesman Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner said Maliki had
ordered the deployment of an extra Iraqi brigade to Samarra while
investigators tried to establish how the bombers managed to stage an
apparent repeat of the February 22, 2006 attack on the al-Askari mosque
that collapsed its famed golden dome.
That bombing was a turning point for Iraq, lifting the lid on simmering
tensions between Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs. The two sects are now locked
in a cycle of violence that has killed tens of thousands and forced
nearly 2 million to flee the country.
Iraq's leaders have often voiced fears that a repeat of the 2006 attack
could trigger all-out sectarian civil war.
The U.S. State Department said Washington was concerned about the
potential affect of Wednesday's attack "among various groups within
Iraq". In a joint statement, Petraeus and Crocker called on Iraqis to
"reject this call to violence".
"This brutal action on one of Iraq's holiest shrines is a deliberate
attempt by al Qaeda to sow dissent and inflame sectarian strife among
the people of Iraq. It is an act of desperation," the statement said.
In a televised address, Maliki also blamed al Qaeda for the attack and
called on Iraqis to unite. He said he had ordered the arrest of the
policemen who had been guarding the mosque and his office said he had
visited the scene.
CRITICAL TIME
The attack comes at a critical time in Iraqi politics. Maliki's
government is under growing pressure to move faster in passing key laws
U.S. officials hope will draw Sunni Arabs closer into the political
process and undermine the insurgency.
But there has been almost no progress and there are signs a major
U.S.-Iraqi crackdown in Baghdad aimed at buying time for Maliki's
government is running out of steam. The number of death squad killings
has begun to rise in the city.
The political bloc of fiery anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose
Mehdi Army militia is blamed for fuelling the violence, urged its
supporters to remain calm but said it was suspending its participation
in parliament in protest.
There were no injuries reported in the attack on Samarra's Golden
Mosque, which demolished its two 36-metre (118 feet) high golden
minarets. It had been closed since 2006 due to disagreements between
Shi'ites and Sunnis over its reconstruction.
The U.S. military, quoting police at the scene, said they were destroyed
in near simultaneous explosions heard coming from inside the mosque
compound. Bergner said it appeared some form of explosives had been used.
The country's top Shi'ite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, urged Shi'ites not to carry out revenge attacks against
Sunni Arabs.
Iraq's Sunni vice-president, Tareq al-Hashemi, said Wednesday's attack
was a "desperate attempt to attack the unity of the Iraqi people and
bring back the black events that Iraq witnessed last year".
The Golden Mosque is one of the four major Shi'ite shrines in Iraq.
Samarra, north of Baghdad, is a predominantly Sunni city. Other major
sites are in the holy Shi'ite cities of Najaf and Kerbala and the
Baghdad district of Kadhimiya, also mainly home to Shi'ites.
Two of the 12 revered Shi'ite imams are buried in the Samarra shrine --
Imam Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868 and his son, the 11th imam, Hasan
al-Askari, who died in 874.
(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim and Alister Bull)