Shias take bloody revenge for attack on shrinShias take bloody revenge for attack on shrine
By Oliver Poole, Baghdad Correspondent
(Filed: 23/02/2006)
Iraq was pushed closer to all-out civil war yesterday after the destruction of the dome of one of Shia Islam's four holiest shrines sent tens of thousands into the streets and set off a wave of revenge attacks on Sunni mosques.
The attack on the Golden Mosque in Samarrah has enraged Shia Muslims ...
President Jalal Talabani appealed for calm as both Sunni and Shia leaders warned that if the state could not protect their communities they would take matters into their own hands.
But last night up to 60 Sunni mosques had been attacked. Three Sunni clerics were among 17 people killed in the wave of violence.
Four gunmen, at least one dressed in military uniform, entered the Golden Mosque in Samarrah at dawn and planted explosives inside. One device collapsed the 100-year-old gold-plated dome, the other damaged the shrine's northern wall.
An aerial photograph released by the US military showed much of the building reduced to a shell of brown masonry and twisted iron.
... who took to the streets in protest at the bombing ...
No casualties were reported although rescue workers were still searching the wreckage last night.
Tony Blair said Britain was "ready to contribute" to the rebuilding of the mosque, and President George W Bush said he would "work with the people of Iraq" to help restore the damage.
Outrage at the attack provoked more violence and protest than any of those by Sunni extremists that have killed thousands of Shias in the past two years.
In Basra, in the south, Shia militiamen traded rifle and rocket-propelled grenade fire with guards at the office of the Sunni-led Iraqi Islamic Party. Stones were thrown at two Sunni mosques and a Sunni shrine was set on fire.
... and attacking Sunni mosques across Iraq
Last night gunmen in police uniforms seized 11 Sunni men from a prison in Basra and killed them, police said. In Najaf, the site of Shia Islam's holiest shrine, around 2,000 demonstrators gathered outside the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Shia Islam's most senior cleric. "Rise up Shias, take revenge," they chanted.
Armed followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, the militant cleric who led two uprisings in 2004, took up positions on street corners in Shia areas of Najaf, Baghdad and Basra.
A spokesman for the cleric issued a statement saying: "If the Iraqi government does not do its job to defend the Iraqi people we are ready to do so."
The Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni group, said 60 mosques across the country were attacked, burned or stormed by Shias. Three Sunni clerics were said to be among six people killed in attacks on mosques. At least six were taken over in Baghdad, with two burnt down and black Shia flags hung outside others.
Tareq al-Hashimi, the party's leader, said those responsible must be punished. "We will pursue anyone who attacks Sunnis," he said.
Samarrah is a primarily Sunni city despite the presence of the Shia shrine. In 2004, it fell under the control of insurgents with al-Qa'eda flags flying over some buildings. US troops regained control but attacks are a regular occurrence with a number of Shia pilgrims killed in recent months.
The Golden Mosque is revered as it contains the tombs of Islam's 10th and 11th imams, historic Shia spiritual leaders. It is also the place where the last of the 12 imams, Mohammed ibn Hasan, disappeared in AD 878.
Shias believe this last "hidden imam" is still alive and will return to restore justice to the world after a cataclysmic confrontation with evil. Moqtada Al-Sadr is motivated by a determination to create the conditions for this apocalyptic event.
17 February 2006: Iraq police death squad arrested at checkpoint