Title: al-Askari Bombing
Description: Civil War?
Description: Civil War?
Kitsula - February 23, 2006 06:57 PM (GMT)
The al-Askari shrine in Samarra was a beautiful building.
What's left now:
What's left now:
| QUOTE (BBC) |
| A bomb attack in Iraq has badly damaged one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, sparking furious protests. Thousands of Iraqis have gathered at the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, where two men blew up the famous golden dome in a dawn raid. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4738472.stm |
Here is the current fallout:
| QUOTE (Reuters) |
| Sectarian emotions swirl after Iraq mosque blast Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:29 AM ET173 By Michael Georgy BAGHDAD (Reuters) - When Hussein Ali was stopped at a makeshift checkpoint in Baghdad, gunmen asked a question he never feared before the bombing of a sacred shrine on Wednesday sparked a wave of violence -- are you Shi'ite or Sunni? "One of the gunmen looked at my identification card," Ali, motorcycle courier, said on Thursday. "He let me pass because I am Shi'ite. But I told him there was no difference between Shi'ites and Sunnis." Many Iraqis would like to believe that. But the devastation of a major Shi'ite shrine in Samarra north of Baghdad is making it very difficult. No single act of violence has fired as much fear of civil war as the attack on the Golden Mosque on Wednesday, even bombings that have killed more than 100 people at a time. Iraqis pointed their fingers in familiar directions, accusing the United States, Israel, Iran, Arab countries and al Qaeda of trying to tear their country apart. But sectarian anger is boiling beneath the surface and people who had dismissed talk of civil war after past crises no longer rule it out. SYSTEMATIC KILLINGS? Police said 130 people were killed in Baghdad in the 24 hours after the blast. That casualty figure was not high by Iraqi standards but signs emerged that sectarian killings might be becoming more systematic. Hours after the Samarra blast, Shi'ite gunmen showed up at the Baghdad home of a 55-year-old Sunni woman, relatives said. Word about the explosion had spread like wildfire so there was little doubt they had come for revenge. Neighbors pleaded with the gunmen and tried to convince them she was a Shi'ite. She was killed minutes later and her son was kidnapped. "The gunmen told her that they knew she was a Sunni from Samarra. They shot her three times in the head," the relative said. Other Iraqis are not taking any chances as militiamen roam the streets, defying police and security forces. Sunnis sawed down palm tree trunks in the Amiriya district of the capital and used them to block off roads leading to mosques. In Adhamiya, cars packed with Sunni insurgents patrolled the streets while their comrades stood guard in front of mosques. An army officer, who said he was under orders to protect Shi'ite and Sunni mosques, acknowledged it could be difficult in such sensitive times. "We are trying to pacify the situation in spite of the fact that some of the mosques are under the control of gunmen but we do not want to confront them so as not to ignite the situation," said the officer who asked not to be named. Iraqis have heard several appeals for calm from their government. But they are getting mixed signals every time they turn on their televisions. Government-run Iraqiya television included in its schedule a graphic video hailing 9th-century Shi'ite leaders' battles against Sunni dominance set against the backdrop of images of the devastated shrine. One Iraqi man stood silently inside a gutted Sunni mosque staring at charred walls that can no longer protect him. (Additional reporting by Omar al-Ibadi) http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle....ECTARIANISM.xml |
...and guess who's blaming the US and Israel for this:
| QUOTE (AFP) |
| Iran's president blames 'Zionists' for Iraq shrine bombing Thu Feb 23, 6:06 AM ET TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed "Zionists and failed occupiers" for the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. "These desperate actions have been made by a bunch of Zionists and failed occupiers," the president said in a speech in the central city of Shahre Kord that was also carried on state television blamed. "Today, you see that they invade holy, safe places. But rest assured that they will not survive the wrath and power of Islam and freedom-seeking nations," he said, a day after the partial destruction of the Imam Ali al-Hadi mausoleum. Iranian media also said the president has written to Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari with an offer to help rebuild the shrine. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has also blamed Israel and the United States. "This is a political crime which must be tracked back to the intelligence services of the Zionists and the occupiers of Iraq," the spiritual leader of Shiite-dominated Iran said. Khamenei has also ordered seven days of national mourning. Iran, Iraq's eastern neighbour, is the only Shiite regime in the world, and some 90 percent of its nearly 70 million people are Shiites. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060223/wl_mi...an_060223110634 |
:france: