Samarra shrine attack: less incendiary now?

Wednesday's attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra, Iraq, mirrored a strike there in February 2006 that started a cycle of revenge and was a watershed moment in the mounting Sunni-Shiite civil war.

But the latest attack on the holy site, which knocked down the revered Shiite mosque's two soaring minarets, may not see the same devastating results.

After more than a year of sectarian bloodshed, Shiite leaders have adopted a more unifying tone and the Iraqi government and US forces have reacted quickly to this strike in an effort to cool tensions.

The first attack destroyed the shrine's Golden Dome. The two assaults have much in common – including the failure of Iraqi security forces to protect a sensitive site and a calculation to stoke sectarian violence that has claimed tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. Saboteurs managed to get inside the shrine and plant charges in what was supposed to be a well-guarded site, raising questions about an inside job.

One Sunni mosque was set on fire Wednesday, Reuters reported. But overall, there were also signs that Iraqi leaders have learned that everyone loses amid indiscriminate bloodshed. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr immediately called for calm – as he did in 2006. But this time it appears as if his loyalists are paying heed. "I don't believe a Sunni or a Muslim would do this,'' he said in a statement.

Tarek al-Hashimi, Iraq's Sunni Arab vice president, said the attack was a "desperate attempt to damage the unity of the Iraqi people."

The attitude of Mr. Sadr and his followers are the key to containing the fallout from this latest assault on Shiite pride. This year, Sadr has sought to refine his image from that as a spokesman of the poor urban Shiites who make up his base into a nationalist leader whose constant calls for a US withdrawal from the country resonate with at least some Sunni Arabs.

Since the spring, he has expelled some of the most notorious death-squad leaders from his movement and has met with senior Sunni politicians.

When he emerged from months of hiding in May – the US alleged he was in Iran – he delivered a sermon against the US "occupation" that was designed, aides said, to appeal to Sunnis.

"I say to the Sunnis that we are brothers, and the occupier divided us in order to make the Iraqi people weak,'' he said. "I am ready to cooperate with them at every level, I'm stretching my hand out to them."

His statements have been greeted with skepticism by Sunnis, since his supporters are still blamed for the bound and tortured corpses of Sunni Arabs that turn up on Baghdad's streets every day. Nonetheless, Sadr's rhetoric has helped to ease tensions in the wake of Wednesday's attack.

Despite this response, the US military and the Iraqi government aren't taking chances. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki almost immediately declared an indefinite curfew in Baghdad and appealed to US forces to send reinforcements to Samarra. A few hundred US soldiers are stationed around Samarra for security, though Iraqi forces are in charge of protecting the mosque.

Page: 1 | 2