Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
BO-DEN
New member
Assailants wearing police uniforms detonated two bombs inside the Askariya shrine in Samarra, blowing the top off its landmark golden dome.
Iraq Edges Closer to Civil War With Sectarian Violence
Revenge Attacks for Shrine Bombing Leave Dozens Dead
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Feb. 23) - A major Sunni Arab bloc Thursday suspended talks with Shiite and Kurdish parties on a new government after scores of Sunni mosques were attacked and dozens of bodies found in a wave of reprisal violence following the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine.
Violence continued Thursday with an attack on a Sunni mosque in Baqouba, where eight Iraqi soldiers were killed in a bombing and nearly a dozen people were wounded.
Faced with the grim prospect of sectarian war, the government extended the curfew in Baghdad and Salaheddin province for two days in the wake of Wednesday's attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra. All leaves for Iraqi soldiers and police were canceled and personnel were ordered to report to their units.
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr slammed the Iraqi government and U.S. forces for not protecting the Samarra shrine, also known as the Golden Mosque, and ordered his militia to defend Shiite holy sites across Iraq.
"If the government had real sovereignty, then nothing like this would have happened," al-Sadr said a statement. "Brothers in the Mahdi Army must protect all Shiite shrines and mosques, especially in Samarra."
At least 46 bodies were found scattered across Iraq late Wednesday and early Thursday, many of them shot execution-style and dumped in Shiite-dominated parts of the capital, Baghdad.
They included a prominent Al-Arabiya TV female correspondent and two other Iraqi journalists, who had been covering Wednesday's explosion in Samarra. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found on the outskirts of the mostly Sunni Arab city 60 miles north of Baghdad.
In mostly Shiite Basra, police said militiamen broke into a prison, hauled out 12 inmates, including two Egyptians, two Tunisians, a Libyan, a Saudi and a Turk, and shot them dead in reprisal for the shrine attack. They had been held in Basra after trying to leave the country following the 2004 U.S. attack on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
The destruction of Samarra's gleaming dome of the 1,200-year-old Askariya shrine sent crowds of angry Shiites into the streets. Many included members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias which the U.S. wants abolished.
The hardline Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars said 168 Sunni mosques were attacked, 10 imams killed and 15 abducted. The figures could not be independently confirmed.
In Thursday's violence, unidentified assailants fired machine guns and threw hand grenades at the Abu Ayoub al-Ansari mosque in Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. At least one mosque employee was killed and two others injured, police said.
The eight Iraqi soldiers died when a bomb exploded near their patrol in the center of the city, the army said.
Also Thursday, thousands of protesters carrying Shiite flags and banners marched through parts of Baghdad and the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Shiite leaders called upon the people of Najaf to go to Samarra to defend the shrine.
Many religious and political leaders called for calm. "We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. "We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war."
Talabani, a Kurd, summoned political leaders to a meeting Thursday to ensure the violence does not derail talks aimed at forming a national unity government after December parliamentary elections. The negotiations -- which U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope will help dent the deadly Sunni-driven insurgency -- have bogged down over sharp differences between Iraq's Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab parties.
Spokesmen for the Iraqi Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab faction, said they would not attend Talabani's meeting and would freeze talks with Kurdish and Shiite parties pending an apology for reprisal attacks against more Sunni mosques.
"We want a clear condemnation from the government which didn't do enough yesterday to curb those angry mobs," said Dr. Salman al-Jumaili, a member of the Accordance Front. "There was even a kind of cooperation with the government security forces in some places in attacking the Sunni mosques."
U.S. military units in the Baghdad area were told Thursday morning to halt all but essential travel. Commanders feared that convoys might be caught up in demonstrations or road blocks.
President Bush pledged American help to restore the mosque after the bombing, which dealt a severe blow to U.S. efforts to keep Iraq from falling deeper into sectarian violence.
"The terrorists in Iraq have again proven that they are enemies of all faiths and of all humanity," Bush said. "The world must stand united against them, and steadfast behind the people of Iraq."
No one was reported injured in the bombing of the shrine in Samarra. But dozens of people, including three Sunni clerics, were killed in the reprisal attacks that followed, mainly in Baghdad and predominantly Shiite provinces to the south.
The country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, sent instructions to his followers forbidding attacks on Sunni mosques and called for seven days of mourning.
But he hinted, as did Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, that religious militias could be given a bigger security role if the government cannot protect holy shrines -- an ominous sign of the Shiite reaction ahead.
2/23/2006 06:32:38
Iraq Edges Closer to Civil War With Sectarian Violence
Revenge Attacks for Shrine Bombing Leave Dozens Dead
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Feb. 23) - A major Sunni Arab bloc Thursday suspended talks with Shiite and Kurdish parties on a new government after scores of Sunni mosques were attacked and dozens of bodies found in a wave of reprisal violence following the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine.
Violence continued Thursday with an attack on a Sunni mosque in Baqouba, where eight Iraqi soldiers were killed in a bombing and nearly a dozen people were wounded.
Faced with the grim prospect of sectarian war, the government extended the curfew in Baghdad and Salaheddin province for two days in the wake of Wednesday's attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra. All leaves for Iraqi soldiers and police were canceled and personnel were ordered to report to their units.
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr slammed the Iraqi government and U.S. forces for not protecting the Samarra shrine, also known as the Golden Mosque, and ordered his militia to defend Shiite holy sites across Iraq.
"If the government had real sovereignty, then nothing like this would have happened," al-Sadr said a statement. "Brothers in the Mahdi Army must protect all Shiite shrines and mosques, especially in Samarra."
At least 46 bodies were found scattered across Iraq late Wednesday and early Thursday, many of them shot execution-style and dumped in Shiite-dominated parts of the capital, Baghdad.
They included a prominent Al-Arabiya TV female correspondent and two other Iraqi journalists, who had been covering Wednesday's explosion in Samarra. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found on the outskirts of the mostly Sunni Arab city 60 miles north of Baghdad.
In mostly Shiite Basra, police said militiamen broke into a prison, hauled out 12 inmates, including two Egyptians, two Tunisians, a Libyan, a Saudi and a Turk, and shot them dead in reprisal for the shrine attack. They had been held in Basra after trying to leave the country following the 2004 U.S. attack on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
The destruction of Samarra's gleaming dome of the 1,200-year-old Askariya shrine sent crowds of angry Shiites into the streets. Many included members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias which the U.S. wants abolished.
The hardline Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars said 168 Sunni mosques were attacked, 10 imams killed and 15 abducted. The figures could not be independently confirmed.
In Thursday's violence, unidentified assailants fired machine guns and threw hand grenades at the Abu Ayoub al-Ansari mosque in Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. At least one mosque employee was killed and two others injured, police said.
The eight Iraqi soldiers died when a bomb exploded near their patrol in the center of the city, the army said.
Also Thursday, thousands of protesters carrying Shiite flags and banners marched through parts of Baghdad and the Shiite holy city of Najaf. Shiite leaders called upon the people of Najaf to go to Samarra to defend the shrine.
Many religious and political leaders called for calm. "We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. "We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war."
Talabani, a Kurd, summoned political leaders to a meeting Thursday to ensure the violence does not derail talks aimed at forming a national unity government after December parliamentary elections. The negotiations -- which U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope will help dent the deadly Sunni-driven insurgency -- have bogged down over sharp differences between Iraq's Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab parties.
Spokesmen for the Iraqi Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab faction, said they would not attend Talabani's meeting and would freeze talks with Kurdish and Shiite parties pending an apology for reprisal attacks against more Sunni mosques.
"We want a clear condemnation from the government which didn't do enough yesterday to curb those angry mobs," said Dr. Salman al-Jumaili, a member of the Accordance Front. "There was even a kind of cooperation with the government security forces in some places in attacking the Sunni mosques."
U.S. military units in the Baghdad area were told Thursday morning to halt all but essential travel. Commanders feared that convoys might be caught up in demonstrations or road blocks.
President Bush pledged American help to restore the mosque after the bombing, which dealt a severe blow to U.S. efforts to keep Iraq from falling deeper into sectarian violence.
"The terrorists in Iraq have again proven that they are enemies of all faiths and of all humanity," Bush said. "The world must stand united against them, and steadfast behind the people of Iraq."
No one was reported injured in the bombing of the shrine in Samarra. But dozens of people, including three Sunni clerics, were killed in the reprisal attacks that followed, mainly in Baghdad and predominantly Shiite provinces to the south.
The country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, sent instructions to his followers forbidding attacks on Sunni mosques and called for seven days of mourning.
But he hinted, as did Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, that religious militias could be given a bigger security role if the government cannot protect holy shrines -- an ominous sign of the Shiite reaction ahead.
2/23/2006 06:32:38
