Attacks on Mosques mark day after shrine bomb

A handful of Sunni mosques were attacked or burned today, but curfews and increased troop levels kept Iraq in relative calm a day after suspected al Qaida bombers toppled the towering minarets of a revered Shiite shrine.

At least four people were reported killed in apparent retaliatory attacks in Basra, and a US soldier said at least 12 rockets or mortars rained down on Baghdad’s heavily-guarded Green Zone this afternoon.

At least one fell outside Iraq’s parliament, about 25 minutes before the US State Department’s No. 2 official was visiting a nearby American military building.

A senior US military official, who requested anonymity because the information had not been released, said there were casualties among non-Americans.

Yesterday’s attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra, which was blamed on Sunni extremists, stoked fears of a surge in violence between Muslim sects.

A bombing at the same mosque complex in February 2006 that destroyed the shrine’s famed golden dome unleashed a bloodbath of reprisals.

“I just don’t think there’s any doubt that it was al Qaida that first struck the al-Askariya in February 2006, and the method this time was very similar to that – (explosive) charges very carefully placed to devastating effect,” US Ambassador Ryan Crocker said today when pressed for evidence of al-Qaida involvement.

The US military issued a statement today saying Iraqi forces had arrested the Emergency Service Unit commander and 12 policemen responsible for security at the shrine at the time of the explosions.

“We must condemn the bad actions of terrorists, and the sons of all tribes must come together and forgive each other,” the military quoted Brig Gen Duraid Ali Ahmed Mohammad Azzawi, deputy commander for the National Police in Samarra, as saying.

Increased US and Iraqi military patrols criss-crossed the streets of the Iraqi capital, and additional checkpoints were set up along roads leading to Sadr City, witnesses said. Hundreds of residents marched peacefully through the streets of that teeming neighbourhood, a stronghold of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia. Demonstrations also took place in Kut, Diwaniyah, Najaf and Basra – all predominantly Shiite cities in the south.

A ban on vehicular traffic was expected to remain in place in Baghdad until Saturday.

Mid-afternoon, explosions rocked central Baghdad, and smoke billowed over the American-guarded Green Zone, which houses the US and British embassies, as well as the offices of the Iraqi government.

A witness inside the zone, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his job, said about half a dozen mortar rounds fell in the area.

Officially, the US military said its radar detected five rockets falling inside the Green Zone. But a US soldier said at least a dozen rockets or mortars hit.

An Associated Press reporter inside the zone said at least one rocket fell at a checkpoint manned by Georgian soldiers near the entrance to the Rasheed Hotel, about 150 yards from Iraq’s parliament. Scattered, broken concrete littered the area. Several military and plainclothes officials were gathered around the impact site, wearing rubber gloves and sifting through rubble.

The attack came less than half an hour before a news conference nearby by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, the No. 2 State Department official, who was in Baghdad for meetings with US and Iraqi officials.

Speaking about 200 yards from the rocket rubble, Negroponte condemned the Samarra bombings as a “deliberate attempt by al-Qaida to sow dissent and inflame sectarian strife among the people of Iraq.”

Attacks on Sunni mosques began within hours of Wednesday’s bombings in Samarra.

Police in the southern city of Basra said four people were killed and six wounded in attacks on the Kawaz, Othman, al-Abayshi and Basra Grand mosques on Wednesday, all involving rocket-propelled grenades that also damaged the buildings. Basra is Iraq’s second-largest city, 340 miles south-east of Baghdad.

Four Sunni mosques near Baghdad also were attacked or burned within several hours of the Samarra bombings, police said.

One of those mosques, which had been only partly destroyed, was a target again Thursday, police said. Around 4am, attackers broke into the Hateen mosque in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, and planted bombs inside.

Flames from a huge explosion destroyed most of the building, and a woman and child in a nearby apartment were wounded, an Iskandariyah police officer said.

Gunmen also tried to storm the nearby al-Mustafa mosque early today, and exchanged fire with guards before Iraqi soldiers arrived and stopped them, police said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

In Mahaweel, 35 miles south of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on the al-Basheer mosque at dawn, police said. They forced guards to leave, then set fire to the mosque. The building was partly damaged.

The Samarra site 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. Both are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and Shiites consider them to be among his successors.

The shrine also is near the place where the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared. Al-Mahdi, known as the “hidden imam,” was the son and grandson of the two imams buried in the Askariya shrine. Shiites believe he will return to Earth to restore justice to humanity.