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SLG
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Protests after bomb blast in Iraq destroys holy shrineSurely this is much more worthy of international Muslim condemnation than some cartoons in a Danish Newspaper... Can't see that happening though.
| Quote: | Protests after bomb blast in Iraq destroys holy shrine
A BOMB attack in Iraq has damaged one of the Muslim world's holiest shrines, sparking angry protests.
The explosion early today damaged the famous golden dome at the Askariya Shia shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.
Police believed worshippers were buried under the debris, but the casualty toll was not known.
Thousands of angry demonstrators quickly gathered at the shrine demanding those responsible be punished.
The attack, which is the third major on a Shia target in as many days, appears to be an attempt to stir-up sectarian violence.
Two armed men overcame the guards at around 6.55am before detonating explosives. The shrine contains the tombs of two revered Shia imams and attracts pilgrims from all over the world.
After the blast, US and Iraqi forces surrounded the shrine, famous for its golden dome, and began searching houses in the area. A US Army photograph showed a gaping hole where the dome once was.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered near the shrine, waving Iraqi flags, Shia religious flags and copies of the Koran.
"This criminal act aims at igniting civil strife," said Mahmoud al-Samarie, 28-year-old builder who was among the crowd.
"We demand an investigation so that the criminals who did this be punished. If the government fails to do so, then we will take arms and chase the people behind this attack."
Religious leaders at other mosques and shrines throughout the city denounced the attack in statements read over loudspeakers from minarets.
The Sunni Endowment, the government agency in charge of maintaining Sunni mosques and shrines, also condemned the attack and said it was sending a delegation to Samarra to investigate what happened.
The shrine contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams, Ali al-Hadi who died in 868 and his son Hassan al-Askari who died in 874 and is visited by Shia pilgrims from throughout the Muslim world. They were descendants of the Prophet Mohammed.
Imam Hassan was the father of Imam Mohammed al-Mahdi, the "hidden imam" who Shia believe is still alive and will return someday to restore justice to the world.
In the Shia holy city of Najaf, the country's most revered Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, ordered seven days of mourning and called on Shias to hold peaceful protests in their home provinces and not go to Samarra.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari declared three days of mourning after the blast which he said was an attack on all Muslims.
"I announce on this occasion three days of mourning," Jaafari said in a live television address.
"I hope our heroic people will take more care on this occasion to bolster Islamic unity and protect Islamic brotherhood and Iraqi national brotherhood." |
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=274792006
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Morph
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has anyone taken responsibility for this yet?
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SLG
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Don't think anyone has claimed responsibility. It's clearly had the desired effect though.
| Quote: | Daytime curfew as Iraq boils over
LIN NOUEIHED AND ALASTAIR MACDONALD
THE Iraqi government was expected to impose a daytime curfew on Baghdad and three surrounding provinces today in an effort to avert sectarian clashes on the Muslim day of prayer.
An overnight curfew was being extended until 4pm local time, and police will arrest those who take to the streets, even to go to mosques, according to sources last night.
Iraq was balanced on the brink of civil war yesterday as more than 130 people died across the country in sectarian violence that left dozens of mosques damaged or in ruins in the wake of Wednesday's suspected al-Qaeda bombing of one of the holiest shrines in Shia Islam.
And George Bush, the US president, yesterday stepped in to the worst crisis since the US-led invasion, one which is threatening efforts to form a stable country and bring US troops home.
"The voices of reason from all aspects of Iraqi life understand that this bombing is intended to create civil strife," Mr Bush said, as the military reported that seven more US soldiers had been killed in two separate attacks yesterday.
Mr Bush praised Iraqi leaders for their public efforts to maintain calm.
The UN's envoy to Iraq asked Iraqi leaders to join him in a meeting. "I have invited political, religious and civil leaders to discuss confidence-building measures to ensure the situation remains under control," Ashraf Qazi said.
But the main Sunni political group said it had pulled out of US-backed talks on forming a coalition government on the back of December's parliamentary election, and leading clerics traded unusually frank sectarian criticisms that will do little to calm passions.
Despite the Sunni boycott, Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president and a Kurd, pressed ahead with a meeting that he had called to avert a descent towards a civil war. After discussions with Shiites, Kurds and leaders of a smaller Sunni group, Mr Talabani told a televised news conference that if all-out war came "no-one will be safe".
Among the dead were 47 Sunnis and Shiites, whom gunmen dragged from vehicles after they attended a demonstration to show cross-sectarian solidarity near Baghdad. Many in Iraq's 27 million population avoided the streets amid a security clampdown and three days of mourning for the destruction of the Shiites' cherished Golden Mosque in Samarra on Wednesday.
"I stayed home," Nasser Ahmed, a Sunni shopkeeper, said in Baghdad. "I was expecting mass killings in the streets."
In another incident, the bodies of three Iraqi journalists, including Atwar Bahjat, a well-known correspondent for al-Arabiya television, were found yesterday near Samarra. They had been sent to the city to cover the bombing and were all Sunni.
The next few days - starting with today, when millions will go to their respective mosques for weekly prayers - may be crucial to determining whether rhetoric from Shiite government leaders and clerics can restrain militiamen from rival Shiite factions, who are jostling for power, from an onslaught against the once-dominant minority Sunnis.
Though bloodless, the bombing of the Samarra mosque has sparked greater fury than countless Sunni rebel attacks that have killed thousands of Shiites since US forces overthrew Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime three years ago.
Some 130,000 US troops, with about 8,000 British soldiers and other allies, were standing by as the Iraqi army and police went on their highest alert, with all leave cancelled. The heavily-armed US forces may have to intervene if large-scale violence increases.
"The issue hangs on the next few days. Either the gates of hell open on to a civil war or the Shiites will take more power, with the excuse that Sunni leaders are unable to rein in increasing terrorist activity," said Hazim al-Naimi, a political science professor at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University. "Only the US military is preventing war in some areas."
The Muslim Clerics Association - the main Sunni religious group - said 184 Sunni mosques had been damaged, some destroyed; ten clerics had been killed and 15 abducted. It accused Shiite religious leaders of stoking the anger by calling for protests. |
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=285742006
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