Minarets on Iraq’s Golden Dome destroyed

updated 8:07 p.m. ET June 13, 2007

BAGHDAD - Saboteur bombers destroyed the two minarets of Samarra’s Askariya Shiite shrine early Wednesday, site of a 2006 bombing that shattered its famous Golden Dome and unleashed a wave of retaliatory sectarian violence that still bloodies Iraq. Sunni extremists of al-Qaida were quickly blamed.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, when asked Wednesday how concerned he was about the possibly the bombing could set off more sectarian violence, said that “I think we have to be concerned, given what happened 15 months ago after the mosque was bombed the first time.”

“This would appear to be yet another effort by al-Qaida to try and prevent political reconciliation in Baghdad, in Iraq — to try and stoke sectarian violence,” he said. “And my hope is that their intentions are so clear that people will refrain from violence because they understand that would just be carrying out what al-Qaida wants.”

The repeat assault on a revered Shiite shrine immediately stirred fears of a new explosion of intra-Muslim bloodshed, and prompted the 30-member bloc of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to suspend its membership in Iraq’s parliament, threatening a deepened political crisis.

To try to ward off an upsurge in Iraq’s unending violence, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki quickly imposed an indefinite curfew on vehicle traffic and large gatherings in Baghdad—at first set for 3 p.m. Wednesday, later delayed to 6 p.m.

Before the curfew took hold, arsonists set fire to a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad, police said.

The White House said U.S. officials in Iraq will use lessons from last year’s bombing to try to contain any new wave of violence.

“It has all the marks of al-Qaida,” said presidential spokesman Tony Snow, “in the sense that it seems clearly an attempt to inflame sectarian tensions. ... They’re literally trying to blow up Iraqi democracy.”

It wasn’t clear how the attackers evaded the Askariya shrine’s guard force to mount the stunning operation, detonating the blasts around 9 a.m., and bringing down the two slender golden minarets that flanked the dome’s ruins at the century-old mosque. No casualties were reported in the attack.

Members of ‘terrorist group’ detained
Policemen at the shrine were subsequently detained and will be questioned as part of the investigation, al-Maliki said. Later, the Interior Ministry said members of “a terrorist group” had been arrested and were being interrogated. The statement did not elaborate.

In addition to ordering the curfew, al-Maliki’s office said, the Iraqi leader met with U.S. Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker to ask that American reinforcements be sent into Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, and U.S. troops here in the capital be put on heightened alert.

A few hundred U.S. soldiers are stationed around Samarra to provide security, though they rarely enter the shrine’s perimeter and leave protection of the mosque to Iraqi forces.

The U.S. command had no immediate comment on military moves. Crocker and Petraeus later released a statement calling the attack and “act of desperation” and “a deliberate attempt by al-Qaida to sow dissent and inflame sectarian strife among the people of Iraq.”

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said the command was “obviously very concerned about this and our primary goal is to prevent any violence of the kind that broke out after the last bombing.”

Al-Maliki later, in a nationally televised address, said he had ordered security forces to beef up protection of religious shrines and mosques across Iraq. The Shiite prime minister also warned against reprisal sectarian attacks.

An official close to the prime minister, citing intelligence reports and speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday’s bombing was likely the work of al-Qaida, whose militants have recently moved into Samarra from surrounding areas.

‘I couldn’t see the minarets anymore’
The powerful blasts shook the town, sending a cloud of dust billowing into the air, said Imad Nagi, a storeowner yards from the shrine. “After the dust settled, I couldn’t see the minarets anymore. So, I closed the shop quickly and went home.”

Another resident, Abdul-Khali Mohammed, predicted violence in the capital: “The Shiite militias now will seize this opportunity to kill Sunni families in Baghdad.”

Police in the shrine area began firing into the air to keep people away, witnesses said, and Iraqi army and police reinforcements poured in. The Interior Ministry said a national police force was ordered to move immediately to Samarra, said an Interior Ministry official.

There was almost no movement in the city by mid-afternoon, witnesses said.

In western Baghdad, however, Shiite militiamen carrying light weapons fanned out across Jihad, a mixed neighborhood in western Baghdad, police said. No violence was immediately reported.

In the neighboring Baiyaa area, smoke spewed from the windows of the Sunni Khudair al-Janabi mosque, which was about 75 percent gutted by flames, police and witnesses said. Police said insurgents pulled up in two cars, doused the mosque with gas and kerosine and fled. A sole guard escaped, and the mosque was empty.

The reaction was swift in Shiite-dominated southern Iraq. Black banners were hoisted outside the Najaf residence of radical cleric al-Sadr, who called for a three-day mourning period and peaceful demonstrations to mark the minarets’ destruction and criticized the government for not doing enough to protect the site.

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