Shrine bombing stirs rage in Iraq

BAGHDAD -- Enraged Shi'ites rioted across Iraq and swore revenge yesterday after bombs ripped through one of the Muslim sect's holiest shrines, and religious and political leaders scrambled to prevent a major escalation of sectarian warfare.

The unrest erupted after attackers dressed as policemen set off several bombs early yesterday inside the Askariya shrine in the insurgent-dominated city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, reducing the structure's famous golden dome to rubble.

In response, crowds took to the streets in major cities, setting dozens of Sunni mosques and Sunni political offices on fire. As many as 18 Sunnis were reported killed in yesterday's violence.

Hundreds of Shi'ite militiamen in Baghdad sped through Sunni areas on a violent rampage, slowing their assault on mosques and neighborhoods only when the top Shi'ite cleric ordered them to desist. Senior clerics called on Shi'ites to march on Samarra to hold Friday prayers in the shell of the bomb-ravaged shrine.

The attack and the growing public rage among Shi'ites prompted alarm over the prospect of an all-out civil war with the Sunnis. Already, Shi'ite targets have been repeatedly bombed, and retaliatory death squads have killed hundreds of Sunnis.

''We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," President Jalal Talabani told Arab satellite television. ''We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war."

President Bush issued a statement yesterday afternoon condemning the bombings.

''I ask all Iraqis to exercise restraint in the wake of this tragedy, and to pursue justice in accordance with the laws and constitution of Iraq," Bush said. ''Violence will only contribute to what the terrorists sought to achieve by this act."

Iraq's president, prime minister, the US ambassador in Baghdad, and top Shi'ite as well as Sunni clerics also pleaded for calm.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the cleric who holds the most direct power over Iraq's Shi'ite majority, made his first television appearance in more than a year, a mark of the gravity of the crisis. Sistani issued a fatwa, or religious order, instructing Shi'ites not to attack Sunni mosques.

But in the streets of major cities, Iraqis already seemed to have concluded that a wave of sectarian warfare was imminent.

Sunni leaders from the Iraqi Islamic Party said that more than 90 mosques were attacked yesterday and that three clerics were killed. In Basra, gunmen in police uniforms seized 11 Sunni men suspected of being insurgents from a prison in the mainly Shi'ite city and killed them, police said, according to Reuters.

Near Basra, mobs set fire to the seventh-century tomb of Talha bin Obeid-Allah, companion of the Prophet Mohammed.

''Their blood will not go in vain," said Tariq al-Hashemi, head of the main Sunni political party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, referring to Sunnis who were killed. ''We will punish and pursue those who committed the aggression."

But the Sunni leader said reason and cool must prevail or else the ''the situation will spin out of control. Then everybody will regret it."

In Baghdad residents retreated to their homes amid the chaos. Shops closed early, and Baghdad residents stocked up on food and fuel. Shortly after lunchtime, the streets were nearly deserted. The government declared three days of national mourning over the destruction of the Samarra shrine.

''Those who are ignorant will now be driven by their anger and emotions," said Mahir Salman, a Shi'ite shoe salesman who was packing up his wares and going home early in central Baghdad.

Squads of Mahdi Army militiamen allied with the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr rallied in the capital, swearing vengeance. Iraqi police and soldiers were setting up roadblocks throughout the city.

Salman said that Shi'ites in his neighborhood had already blown up a Sunni mosque in a revenge attack, but he hoped religious leaders could restore calm.

''Otherwise, if they say an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, then it will get much worse," Salman said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack on the Askariya shrine, which occurred around 7 a.m., although suspicion fell on Sunni extremist groups. Iraqi security officials said three men wearing what looked like black police uniforms, and another in a military uniform, had entered the shrine and planted the bombs. Although the blasts destroyed the dome, completed in 1905, some of the ninth-century structure's walls remained standing.

Sectarian fighting in Iraq has damaged many mosques, but none previously had been singled out for destruction. Bombing the Samarra shrine -- a major symbol for Shi'ite Muslims across the world -- appeared to be a strike calculated to provoke a sectarian reaction.

Iraq boasts four of the holiest shrines for Shi'ites, and the ''Golden Mosque" in Samarra holds special resonance because it is located in a Sunni city. The shrine contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th Shi'ite imams, believed to be direct descendants of Mohammed who ruled in the ninth century.

The site also marks the spot where tradition holds that the 12th imam, known as the ''Hidden Imam" or Mahdi, disappeared. Shi'ites believe that Mahdi will return to earth to establish a rule of religious justice and kill unbelievers in an apocalyptic battle.

Sadr's followers blamed the United States for the shrine's destruction, since Sunni Arab insurgents have run rampant in Samarra despite the US Army's attempt to control them.

''We are prepared to strongly defend our shrine, and we swear by God we will battle those who do not defend our holy shrines," Sadr spokesman Abdulhadi al-Daraji said, in a threat directed in part at US forces.

Amid the wreckage of the shrine, television cameras captured images of protesters carrying Arabic fliers that read: ''There is no God but God, and America is the enemy of God."

The sectarian strife worsened as negotiations are underway to form a new Iraqi government. Shi'ite Islamist political parties hold nearly 50 percent of the seats in the legislature but need the support of either Kurds or rival Sunni Arabs to form a government.

The discussions have exacerbated deep ethnic tensions. Earlier this week, US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad called on Iraq's politicians to set aside sectarian agendas and choose the best leaders for a national unity government. Khalilzad's comments were viewed as a rebuke to hard-line Shi'ite Islamist politicians, who are fighting to retain control of the government and key sectors like the police force.

Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, a Shi'ite political powerbroker and the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, blamed Khalilzad's comments for the Samarra attack, saying the ambassador ''gave the green light to terrorist groups."

Khalilzad, however, echoed Bush's position, calling for calm and unity. In a joint statement with the top US military commander in Iraq, General George Casey, he pledged American funds to help rebuild the shrine and called its destruction a ''crime against humanity."

''This is a critical moment for Iraq," Khalilzad said. ''This desperate and despicable act shows that terrorists stop at nothing and care for nothing."

Sistani and other leading Shi'ites, suggested that militias might have to step up their activities to protect religious sites if the government and the Americans are not up to the task.

Some Sunni leaders from the Association of Muslim Scholars directly accused the Shi'ite-dominated security forces of staging the attack to incite further violence against Sunnis. A spokesman for the group, Muthana Hareth al-Dhari, also blamed US occupation forces and the Iraqi government for failing to protect Sunnis.

''Why did such aggression not take place when the city was under the control of the resistance groups?" he said.

Globe correspondent Sa'ad al-Izzi reported from Baghdad.