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02/23/2006:

"Mass protests as Shiite shrine attacked in Iraq"

The golden dome of a celebrated Iraqi Shiite shrine was destroyed in a bomb attack, prompting warnings of sectarian conflict as thousands of enraged Shiites took to the streets.

There were no reported injuries, but tension was running high throughout the country after the two bombs went off in Samarra's 1,000-year-old Imam Ali al-Hadi mausoleum, whose golden dome collapsed.

Waving the green flags of Islam and the national Iraqi colours, thousands of Shiites took to the streets of Samarra vowing to punish those responsible for the attack.

Aside from mass protests in Samarra, tens of thousands also rallied in Baghdad, 125 kilometres (80 miles) south of Samarra, and in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, in southern Iraq.

"A group of armed men attacked the mausoleum of Imam Ali al-Hadi at 7:00 am (0400 GMT), neutralized the policemen guarding the building before placing two explosives charges and blowing them up," police said on Wednesday.

Shops closed and muezzins recited prayers from the loudspeakers of nearby mosques and blamed the United States for the turmoil, saying "God is Great, death to America which brought us terrorism."

Demonstrators carried the turban, sword and shield said to have belonged to Ali al-Hadi, the 10th Shiite imam, shouting "Iman, we are your soldiers".

Iraq's top Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, told AFP the religious leader wanted seven days of national mourning but Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari announced on television a three day period.

"I proclaim three days of national mourning in the country following this hurtful attack," Jaafari said.

He also called on Iraqis to denounce such attacks and "close the road to those who want to undermine national unity".

The bombing aimed to provoke fighting between the majority Shiite and minority Sunni communities at a time when political factions bicker over the formation of a national unity government.

The attack on the shrine came a day after a car bomb killed at least 21 in a mainly Shiite market of Baghdad and two days after another bomb wounded dozens of Shiite daily labourers waiting to work in the capital.
turkishpress.com


Dozens of Sunni mosques attacked throughout Iraq
Shiite protesters attacked dozens of Sunni mosques throughout Iraq on Wednesday in retaliation for the bombing of one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, police, witnesses and political groups said.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni political group, said at least 60 mosques were attacked, burned or taken over by Shiites.
They included more than 50 in Baghdad alone, three of which were completely destroyed with explosives, the party said. The rest were in predominantly Shiite areas on the capital's southern outskirts and in Iraq's southern provinces.

Armed Shiites attacked the mosques with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, holding Sunnis after taking over some of them, the party said.

Followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia took a major part in Wednesday's attacks, said four of their supporters were killed and dozens wounded in a series of clashes with mosque guards.



Askariya Shrine Bombing: Black Op?
In Iraq, things are going swimmingly for the Straussian neocons. “A large explosion heavily damaged the golden dome of one of Iraq’s most famous Shiite shrines Wednesday, spawning mass protests and triggering reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques,” reports the Associated Press. “It was the third major attack against Shiite targets this week and threatened to stoke sectarian tensions. Shiite leaders called for calm, but militants attacked Sunni mosques and a gunfight broke out between Shiite militiamen and guards at the offices of a Sunni political party in Basra. About 500 soldiers were sent to Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad to prevent clashes between Shiites and Sunnis, Army Capt. Jassim al-Wahash said.”

It makes absolutely no sense for Sunnis to bomb Shia mosques; this would be akin to Baptists bombing Catholic churches. Sectarian violence, dividing Iraqi society, does not serve Iraqis, either Sunni or Shia. It does, however, serve the occupation forces and also begins to realize the plan sketched out in Oded Yinon’s “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties” (the balkanization of Arab and Muslim society and culture), an objective shared by Jabotinsky Likudites and Straussian neocons.