Iraqi police say famous shrine attacked
BAGHDAD - Insurgents blew up the two minarets of the famous Golden Dome Shiite shrine in Samarra on Wednesday, Iraqi police and a security official said.
The attack occurred around 9 a.m., despite a police presence at the site, officials said. Police in Samarra spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, and a security official in Baghdad confirmed the account on the same condition.
The al-Askari shrine's dome was destroyed in a February 2006 bombing that was blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants. The mosque compound and minarets remained intact, and have been guarded since then by Iraqi police and commandos.
Bad news ... is the mosque still a wreck, was it ever restored?
They say it was being guarded, but I am not surprised that did not work.
Iran’s racheting up the game. They want the Shiites to know they are still there.
Sunna or later, Shi’ite happens!
The less mosques the better.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6747419.stm
Last Updated: Wednesday, 13 June 2007, 07:19 GMT 08:19 UK
Blast hits key Iraq Shia shrine
Two minarets stood either side of the shrine before the attack
The two minarets of the al-Askari shrine in Iraq, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, have been damaged by two explosions, officials say.
According to witnesses the minarets collapsed completely after being hit by bomb blasts around 0900 (0500 GMT).
The shrine houses one of two tombs in Samarra for revered Shia imams.
The bombing of the dome at the mosque in 2006 is widely believed to have set off a continuing spiral of sectarian violence in which many thousands died.
The BBC’s Jim Muir in Baghdad says there are obvious fears now that this might give it yet further impetus.
The head of the Shia endowment foundation said the minarets had been blown up by “extremists”.
Samarra: Pilgrimage centre
“It is a terrorist attack aimed at sparking sectarian violence,” Sheikh Saleh al-Haidari told the AFP news agency.
A senior government official said it was very bad news for Iraq.
Sources in Samarra said the city had been put under an immediate curfew.
Samarra is mainly a Sunni Muslim stronghold and has been a centre of the armed insurgency against US troops and the Shia-dominated Iraqi administration.
The al-Askari shrine is part of the Imam Ali al-Hadi mausoleum, which contains the remains of the 10th and 11th imams, reputed to be direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.
Imam Ali al-Hadi died in 868 AD and his son, Hassan al-Askari, died in 874 AD.
The attack in February last year was widely believed to be the work of Sunni militants from the al-Qaeda movement, some of whom were later arrested.
Our correspondent says there are bound to be questions about how such an obvious and significant target could have been attacked again.
AP update:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070613/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
9 minutes ago
The MSM has been slacking off on pushing the “sectarian civil war” talking point lately. Looks like Iran and their al Qaeda lapdogs are trying to remedy that.
It worked once for them already. Why not?
Oh, no! Not this Shi’ite again!
The media’s trying to hype this one up into a frenzy.
hey all, this isn’t funny. This just means our guys on the ground are going to suffer the consequences of this. Tensions are going to flare once again between the two muslim sects, and a lot of it is going to be taken out on the american soldier because the muslims will say it was our fault for not protecting the shrine. I don’t think this is anything to laugh about. Iraq is a freaking mess thanks to our doing and our support of the president. Laughing and cracking jokes about something that will most certainly spike violence towards our G.I.’s to me isn’t funny.
The terrorists try the same advertising campaign that was somewhat successful last year. Since the merchandise is the same, customer interest might be lower.
Fifteen security personnel under arrest. Baghdad under curfew. So far it seems Iraqis aren’t buying this time.
Nah, it could never happen.......
could it?
One less accused shrine to a false prophet!
Were any artifacts looted?
Destroy all of them. kill them all. That would be a start.
The suspects in the bombing came from the Salahadin Emergency Response Unit, not the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Brigade of the 1st Iraqi National Police Division (3-3-1 INP), according to Multinational Division North. “I can confirm ... that Brig. Gen. Duraid, deputy commander for the National Police in Samarra, did arrest the Emergency Response Unit Iraqi Police commander and 12 of his Iraqi police who had been guarding the mosque at the time of the explosions,” Major Tage J. Rainsford, the spokesman for Major General Benjamin Mixon, told FOX News this evening.
DJ Elliott, the editor and researcher behind The Fourth Rail’s Iraqi Security Forces Order Of Battle, noted the Salahadin Emergency Response Unit [ERU] is essentially the provincial SWAT unit. The ERU is known as the 3rd ERU battalion of the Salahadin Provincial Iraqi Police. The unit designation explains the earlier confusion between the units (3rd ERU verses the 3-3-1 INP). The 3-3-1 was responsible for security of the mosque, but was slated to move to Baghdad this month as part of a newly formed Military Police brigade.
Earlier in the day, conflicting reports indicated that there was a conflict between two units, and in one case a skirmish, although the units were not identified. A likely scenario is the Salahadin Emergency Response Unit was assigned to secure the al-Askaria mosque, and al Qaeda infiltrators took advantage of the change in command to destroy the minarets.
http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/06/samarra_mosque_bombi.php
Between this and what’s going on in the Gaza Strip, i’m convinced there is no absolutely hope for these islamists. They should be completely isolated and allowed to destroy themselves. There have no ability to reason, they destroy their own governments, their own shrines, their own future.
It proves a point however. If the islamists have no little regard for their own future, it proves they have abslutely no second thoughts about attacking western civilization.
Iran sees Putin being belligerent, and the democrat party falling over each other to be the best dhimmi (calling WoT a bumper sticker, etc), with Bush on his way out in half a year... they see a great time to ‘dig in’ and fortify what they’ve been angling for on several fronts.