Posted on 02/22/2006 2:20:29 PM PST by jdm
SAMARRA, Iraq (AP) - Insurgents detonated bombs inside one of Iraq's holiest Shiite shrines Wednesday, destroying its golden dome and triggering more than 90 reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques. The president warned that extremists were pushing the country toward civil war.
With the gleaming dome of the 1,200-year-old Askariya shrine reduced to rubble, leaders on both sides called for calm and many Shiites lashed out at the United States as partly to blame.
But the string of back-and-forth attacks seemed to push Iraq closer to all-out civil war than at any point in the three years since the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
"We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," said President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. "We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war."
President Bush pledged American help to restore the mosque after the bombing north of Baghdad, which dealt a severe blow to U.S. efforts to keep Iraq from falling deeper into sectarian violence.
"The terrorists in Iraq have again proven that they are enemies of all faiths and of all humanity," Bush said. "The world must stand united against them, and steadfast behind the people of Iraq."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair also condemned the bombing and pledged funds toward the shrine's reconstruction.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, called the attack a deliberate attempt to foment sectarian strife and warned it was a "critical moment for Iraq."
No one was reported injured in the bombing of the shrine in Samarra.
But at least 18 people, including three Sunni clerics, were killed in the reprisal attacks that followed, mainly in Baghdad and predominantly Shiite provinces to the south, according to the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni political group.
Major Sunni groups joined in condeming the attack, and a leading Sunni politician, Tariq al-Hashimi, urged clerics and politicians to calm the situation "before it spins out of control."
The country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, sent instructions to his followers forbidding attacks on Sunni mosques, and called for seven days of mourning.
But he hinted, as did Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, that religious militias could be given a bigger security role if the government cannot protecting holy shrines - an ominous sign of the Shiite reaction ahead.
Both Sunnis and the United States fear the rise of such militias, which the disaffected minority views as little more than death squads. American commanders believe they undercut efforts to create a professional Iraqi army and police force - a key step toward the eventual drawdown of U.S. forces.
Some Shiite political leaders already were angry with the United States because it has urged them to form a government in which nonsectarian figures control the army and police. Khalilzad warned this week - in a statement clearly aimed at Shiite hard-liners - that America would not continue to support institutions run by sectarian groups with links to armed militias.
One top Shiite political leader accused Khalilzad of sharing blame for the attack on the shrine in Samarra.
"These statements ... gave green lights to terrorist groups. And, therefore, he shares in part of the responsibility," said Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the former commander of its militia.
The interior minister, who controls the security forces that Sunnis accuse of widepsread abuses, is a member of al-Hakim's party.
The new tensions came as Iraq's various factions have been struggling to assemble a government after the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.
The Shiite fury sparked by Wednesday's bombings - the third major attack against Shiite targets in as many days - raised the likelihood that Shiite religious parties will reject U.S. demands to curb militias.
The Askariya shrine, also known as the Golden Mosque, contains the tombs of two revered Shiite imams, who are considered by Shiites to be among the successors of the Prophet Muhammad.
No group claimed responsibility for the 6:55 a.m. assault on the shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, carried out by four insurgents posing as police. But suspicion fell on Sunni extremist groups.
The top of the dome, which was completed in 1905, collapsed into a crumbly mess, leaving just traces of gold showing through the rubble. Part of the shrine's tiled northern wall also was damaged.
Thousands of demonstrators crowded near the wrecked shrine, and Iraqis picked through the debris, pulling out artifacts and copies of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, which they waved, along with Iraqi flags.
"This criminal act aims at igniting civil strife," said Mahmoud al-Samarie, a 28-year-old builder. "We demand an investigation so that the criminals who did this be punished. If the government fails to do so, then we will take up arms and chase the people behind this attack."
U.S. and Iraqi forces surrounded the Samarra shrine and searched nearby houses. About 500 soldiers were sent to Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad to prevent clashes.
National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said 10 people were detained for questioning about the bombing. The Interior Ministry put the number at nine and said they included five guards.
In the hours after the attack, more than 90 Sunni mosques were attacked with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, burned or taken over by Shiites, the Iraqi Islamic Party said.
Large protests erupted in Shiite parts of Baghdad and in cities throughout the Shiite heartland to the south. In Basra, Shiite militants traded rifle and rocket-propelled grenade fire with guards at the office of the Iraqi Islamic Party. Smoke billowed from the building.
Shiite protesters later set fire to a Sunni shrine containing the seventh century tomb of Talha bin Obeid-Allah, a companion of Muhammad, on the outskirts of Basra.
Police found 11 bodies of Sunni Muslims, most shot in the head and including two Egyptians, in Basra, police Capt. Mushtaq Kadhim said.
Protesters in Najaf, Kut and Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City also marched through the streets by the thousands, many shouting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans and burning those nations' flags.
Has anyone else wondered about the size of these charges?
I don't think that they are off. I think that someone did this with the intention of starting a war with Shia and Sunnis going at it. AQ or Iran.
What does this do to the appearance of the Mahdi? Isn't this where he was supposed to show up?
That picture really does not look good.
Wow, the bomb shifted the entire building by 45 degrees.
The AP has said Iraq is on the verge of civil war for 2 1/2 years now.
It's going to take a lot of effort and luck to keep this thing from spinning totally out of control.
I don't agree blowing anything that old.
Following my last post to you, this one popped up. May al-AP be very disappointed at the end of the day...
Apparently the mosque was a hiding place for the 12 imam--the Mahdi--the guy that Ahmadinejad wants to return in a orgy of nuclear chaos. I wonder if Iran had a hand in this for a mystical purpose as well as the concrete goal of fomenting civil war.
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-02-22T112322Z_01_OLI241117_RTRUKOT_0_TEXT0.xml&related=true&src=cms
The Kurds should have their own nation state anyway.
Or so the MSM and trolls on FR fervently hope.....
Just remember that if Iraq DOES GO TOWARDS a civil war, our troops will be stuck in the middle and sure as hell we won't pull out if that happens.
Eleven suspected foreign fighters from Egypt and Saudi Arabia were seized by gunmen in Iraq's largely Shiite second city of Basra Wednesday and all but one of them lynched, police said.
The bodies of three of them were found in the city centre close to the offices of the state-owned South Oil Company.
The corpses of another seven were found in a southwestern neighbourhood of Basra.
The attack on the suspected Sunni militants came amid a wave of anger across Shiite central and southern Iraq over a bomb attack on one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines.
the AP sooooooo wants a civil war. A holes.
You're absolutely correct - though I doubt it was Iran. They're Shiite, and they wouldn't have bombed a Shiite ultra holy site. If I was a sunni tribal leader and/or local mullah/imam, I'd be shii'te(ing) my pants now, and asking for Al Qaeda's heads on pikes. Cause if we decide to step aside now the Shiites will have themselves a nice little extermination party.
Something good might come from this if Sunnis get scared enough.
So what do you see?
Some sort of "Brady Bunch" deal where the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds all love each other?
It's going to take a lot of effort and luck to keep this thing from spinning totally out of control.
On the other hand, this could have the effect of further driving a wedge between Sunni insurgents and Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq. Previous attacks on Shiites by Al Qaeda lead to Sunnis coming to the protection of the Shiites against Al Qaeda. Sunnis may well see this is a desperate attempt by Al Qaeda to turn Shiites on Sunnis. This could have the effect of intensifing Sunnis turning against Al Qaeda. I see it more likely that this may actually have the effect of unifying Iraqis rather than tearing them apart believe it or not, an attack so brazen and appalling that Sunnis just see the need to rid Iraq of the jihadist pestilence. I know that goes against all conventional wisdom and prevailing events, but let's watch and see. I just don't see Jaffari, Sistani, etc. allowing their Shiite adherents or Iraq to fall apart on them.
they never have.
You have to remember that the AQ creeps get these young and dumb ones in there and immediately dope them up and send them out to blow up.
Plan C ?
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