Violence After Mosque Attack Kills 111

AP on Yahoo ^ | 2/23/06 | Alexandra Zavis - ap

[NormsRevenge]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen shot dead 47 civilians and left their bodies in a ditch near Baghdad Thursday as militia battles and sectarian reprisals followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine. Sunni Arabs suspended their participation in talks on a new government.

At least 111 people were believed killed in two days of rage unleashed by Wednesday's attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra, a mostly Sunni Arab city 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The hardline Sunni Clerical Association of Muslim Scholars said 168 Sunni mosques had been attacked around the country, 10 imams killed and 15 abducted since the shrine attack. The Interior Ministry said it could only confirm figures for Baghdad, where it had reports of 19 mosques attacked, one cleric killed and one abducted.

The bullet-ridden bodies of a prominent female correspondent and two other journalists who had been covering Wednesday's explosion in Samarra were found on the outskirts of the city.

The sectarian violence threatened to derail U.S. plans to form a new national unity government representing all factions, including Sunni Arabs, who form the backbone of the insurgency.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, summoned political leaders to a meeting Thursday. But the biggest Sunni faction in the new parliament, the Iraqi Accordance Front, refused to attend, citing the attacks on Sunni mosques.

"It is illogical to negotiate with parties that are trying to damage the political process," said Tariq al-Hashimi, a leader of the Accordance Front.

President Bush said the bombing was intended to divide the Iraqi people.

"The act was an evil act," Bush said. "The destruction of a holy site is a political act intending to create strife. So I am pleased with the voices of reason that have spoken out."

Bush said the U.S. was committed to helping rebuild the mosque.

As the country veered toward sectarian war, the government extended a curfew in Baghdad and Salaheddin province for two days. All leaves for Iraqi soldiers and police were canceled and personnel ordered to report to their units.

The U.S. military said four soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, were killed Wednesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near Hawijah.

Three others from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division died when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb Wednesday near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accused the Iraqi government and U.S. forces of failing to protect 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 in a statement. "Brothers in the Mahdi Army must protect all Shiite shrines and mosques, especially in Samarra."

The destruction of the gleaming dome of the 1,200-year-old Askariya shrine sent crowds of angry Shiites into the streets across Iraq. The crowds included members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias that the United States wants abolished.

A spokesman for the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars blamed the violence on the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and other Shiite religious leaders who called for demonstrations against the shrine attack.

Abdul-Salam Al-Kubaisi also said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad may also have enflamed the situation when he warned Monday that the United States would not continue to support institutions run by sectarian groups with links to armed militias. Sunnis accuse Shiite militiamen operating in the ranks of the Interior Ministry, which controls the police, of widespread abuses.

"Without doubt, these statements mobilized all the Shiites," al-Kubaisi said. "It made them ready to go down to the street at any moment."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Thursday that he suspects Al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was responsible for the mosque attack.

"It has the hallmarks of their nihilism," Straw told a news conference in London. He called on leaders of Iraq's religious communities to defuse tensions caused by the attack.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the attack was "an act of desperation as well as desecration."

In Diyala, a religiously mixed province northeast of Baghdad, 47 bodies were found in a ditch. Officials said the victims appeared to have been stopped by gunmen, forced out of their cars and shot in an industrial area near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Most were aged between 20 and 50 and appeared to include both Sunnis and Shiites, police said.

Dozens more bodies were found dumped at sites in Baghdad and the Shiite heartland in southern Iraq, many of them with their hands bound and shot execution-style.

Fighting broke out Thursday afternoon in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, between al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and Sunni militiamen. Two civilians were killed and five militiamen were injured, police Capt. Rashid al-Samaraie said.

Gunmen fired automatic weapons and grenades at a Sunni mosque in Baqouba, killing one mosque employee and injuring two others, police said. Assailants also set fire to two Sunni mosques in eastern Baghdad, police said.

Thousands of demonstrators carrying Shiite flags and banners marched through parts of Baghdad, Karbala, Kut, Tal Afar and the Shiite holy city of Najaf in protest against the shrine attack.

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.

Nineteen people, 11 of them civilians, died in two bombings north of Baghdad that appeared unrelated to the sectarian fighting.

___

Associated Press writers Charles J. Hanley and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, Hana al-Daghistani in Baqouba, and Ziad Khalaf in Samarra contributed to this report.

[Echo Talon]

The hardline Sunni Clerical Association of Muslim Scholars said 168 Sunni mosques had been attacked around the country,

OMG! How many mosques are in that country?

[CrawDaddyCA]

What do you call 111 dead Muslims...

[NormsRevenge]

An Iraqi inspects the bombed holy shrine of al-Hadi in the Iraqi northern city of Samarra. A bomb attack destroyed the dome of one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq, prompting thousands of enraged Shiites to take to the streets and fanning fears of sectarian violence(AFP/Dia Hamid)

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A picture released by the US Army shows an aerial view of the holy Shrine of al-Hadi, in the northern city of Samarra. A bomb attack destroyed the dome of one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq, prompting thousands of enraged Shiites to take to the streets and fanning fears of sectarian violence(AFP/HO)

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

Saddam Hussein left the Iraqi people with a legacy of murder and mayhem.

Only when this generation of killers is dead will the nation find peace.

The pandora's box of good intentions sometimes should come with bigger warning.

[NormsRevenge]

Demonstrators gathering outside the bombed holy shrine of al-Hadi in the Iraqi northern city of Samarra. A bomb attack destroyed the dome of one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq, prompting thousands of enraged Shiites to take to the streets and fanning fears of sectarian violence(AFP/Dia Hamid)

[Rick Deckard]

And I thought mosques were the holiest of holy place, therefore untouchable. Maybe the rule only applies to infidels.

[American Quilter]

Is it fair to say the Sunnis brought this on themselves, or am I being too simplistic?

[FerdieMurphy]

OMG! How many mosques are in that country?

About as many as there are in Estados Unidos.

[FerdieMurphy]

What do you call 111 dead Muslims...

Only 900,000,000 left to go?

[TexasCajun]

Iran's fingerprints are all over this.

The sooner we deal with them the better.

[50sDad]

That's nothing. They lose more than that during their Holy Stampedes.

[AntiGuv]

OMG! How many mosques are in that country?

The Muslim Scholars Association represents roughly 3000 Sunni mosques in Iraq, and that's only 20% of the population. ;)

[Echo Talon]

wholey cow! and sunnis are the minority correct?

[AntiGuv]

Yep. About 20% Sunni Arab; 20% Sunni Kurd; and 60% Shiite Arab (very rough estimates).

[Echo Talon]

WOW, I never knew they had that many mosques! sheesh!

[AntiGuv]

BTW, I just looked it up to be sure, because it occurred to me I might've been mistaken to exclude the Kurdish Sunni, and I was! The Muslim Scholars Association has an Arab branch and a Kurdish branch, and they claim to represent 3000 Sunni mosques. So, the 3000 mosques would cover about 40% of the population. Therefore, one might guesstimate 7500 mosques in all of Iraq.

PS. Fallujah is known as The City of 1000 Mosques.

[tumblindice]

There were just over 26 million Iraqis as of July, `05.
If we `wait them out', when the dust settles we could make it a state and re-locate all our criminals and Democrats. (`Iraqachusetts'?)

[Tokra]

OMG! How many mosques are in that country?

I would guess thousands or maybe tens of thousands. They have a population of over 26 million. One mosque for every 1000 people would be 26,000 mosques. I would think that's a reasonable ratio. I would guess that a small US town of 3000 probably would have at least 3 churches.

[AntiGuv]

The United States is not a good analogy because there are all kinds of small Christian denominations and each one has to have its own separate church. If everyone was, say Roman Catholic, then there would be fewer big churches rather than many small churches. That would be more analogous to a Muslim city.