Bombs shatter Shi’ite shrine in Iraq’s Samarra

BAGHDAD – Bombs wrecked the dome of a major Shi’ite shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra yesterday in an apparent sectarian attack that sparked demonstrations and calls for revenge by angry crowds.

The country’s top Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called for protests against the attack, and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shi’ite Islamist, went live on television to declare three days of mourning. Jaafari, under pressure from the United States to bring Sunni minority leaders into a coalition government to avert a sectarian civil war, called for unity, describing the blasts as an attack on all Muslims.But protesters gathering in the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf vowed revenge for the attack, and National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a Shi’ite, blamed the blast on Arab Sunni militants inspired by al Qaeda.Local officials said there were no reports of casualties after gunmen entered the Golden Mosque at dawn and set off charges that destroyed the celebrated dome of one of the four holiest Shi’ite sites in Iraq.The shrine is dedicated to the Imam Ali al-Hadi and his son Hassan al-Askari.Witnesses in the town and television footage showed the top of the dome blown off and shattered masonry framed by two slender minarets.A US military spokeswoman described the damage to the roof as “catastrophic”.Samarra, 100 km north of Baghdad, has been a seat of the Sunni Arab insurgency against a US-backed government dominated by Shi’ite parties.Few Shi’ites live in the Sunni city.Sectarian tensions are already running high in Iraq as Jaafari tries to form a unity government following Shi’ite Islamist successes in a parliamentary election in December.- Nampa-ReutersJaafari, under pressure from the United States to bring Sunni minority leaders into a coalition government to avert a sectarian civil war, called for unity, describing the blasts as an attack on all Muslims.But protesters gathering in the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf vowed revenge for the attack, and National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a Shi’ite, blamed the blast on Arab Sunni militants inspired by al Qaeda.Local officials said there were no reports of casualties after gunmen entered the Golden Mosque at dawn and set off charges that destroyed the celebrated dome of one of the four holiest Shi’ite sites in Iraq.The shrine is dedicated to the Imam Ali al-Hadi and his son Hassan al-Askari.Witnesses in the town and television footage showed the top of the dome blown off and shattered masonry framed by two slender minarets.A US military spokeswoman described the damage to the roof as “catastrophic”.Samarra, 100 km north of Baghdad, has been a seat of the Sunni Arab insurgency against a US-backed government dominated by Shi’ite parties.Few Shi’ites live in the Sunni city.Sectarian tensions are already running high in Iraq as Jaafari tries to form a unity government following Shi’ite Islamist successes in a parliamentary election in December.- Nampa-Reuters