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posted February 22, 2006 at 11:00 a.m.

Dome of Shiite shrine destroyed in attack

Some Iraqi Shiites call for revenge after mosque in Sunni city of Samarra is heavily damaged.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

The day after a bomb on a Baghdad street killed 23 people, another bomb in the mainly Sunni city of Samarra destroyed the golden dome of one of the Al Askari Mosque, one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq. The Associated Press reports that although no one was killed in the blast, the destruction of the mosque's dome sparked demonstrations and calls for revenge.

"This criminal act aims at igniting civil strife," said Mahmoud al-Samarie, a 28-year-old builder. "We demand an investigation so that the criminals who did this be punished. If the government fails to do so, then we will take arm and chase the people behind this attack."

The BBC reports that Robert Hillenbrand, the professor of Islamic Art at Edinburgh University, said that while the shrine was not of tremendous architectural importance, it has " enormous spiritual value" for millions of Shiite Muslims worldwide.


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The Washington Post reports that Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari called for a three-day mourning period. "I call on my people to express their condemnation," Jaafari said. He asked Iraqis to "close the door to all those who are fishing in the troubled water."

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual head of Iraq's Shiite Muslims, called for peaceful demonstrations, and urged his followers not to attack Sunni Muslims or their holy places. The Sunni Endowment, the government agency in charge of maintaining Sunni mosques and shrines, also condemned the destruction of the mosque. The agency said it would investigate the attack.

The greatest concern after the blast was a rise in sectarian violence. The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that eight Sunni mosques in Baghdad were attacked and damaged, although no one was hurt since the mosques were empty at the time.

Last week Knight Ridder reported on the troubled city of Samarra, where the bombed mosque was located. Although the US military claimed to have retaken the city from Sunni insurgents 15 months ago, the city has steadily seen a rise in attacks on US and Iraqi troops, as well as an increase in sectarian violence.

Many of the American troops who patrol the city say they don't see much hope for Samarra. Some officers privately worry that the city will fall to insurgents as American troops withdraw.
"Samarra is one example of many towns in Iraq that are barely functioning," said Capt. Ryan Edwards, 31, of Plain City, Ohio, who majored in Middle Eastern studies at West Point. "What the insurgents know is that we lack the will to go after them. It's not the American Army that lacks the will; it's the American people and their leadership."

Knight Ridder also reports that explanations from the US military for the failure in Samarra vary: "US officials don't fully understand the city's tribal structure and its connections to the insurgency ... Insurgents have infiltrated and intimidated the Iraqi police and army, rendering them ineffective ... Nearly three years after the United States toppled Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, Samarra still has no effective city government ... Insurgent attacks have created a violent and dangerous environment in which American forces sometimes kill innocent civilians, further alienating the populace."

Meanwhile, in another development that may lead to more problems for the US in Iraq, the BBC's program Newsnight reports that almost 100 prisoners have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since August 2002, according to US group Human Rights First. Of the 98 deaths documented in the report, which drew upon information from the Pentagon and other US official sources, 34 were suspected or confirmed homicides. The Pentagon told Newsnight that it had not seen the report, but took allegations of abuse very seriously and would prosecute if necessary.