Sectarian violence sweeps across Iraq (29 mosques attacked)

[leftchick]

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1140608227550&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home

Sectarian violence sweeps across Iraq
Shiite holy site levelled in coordinated militant attack
Feb. 22, 2006. 10:09 AM
ZIAD KHALAF
ASSOCIATED PRESS


SAMARRA, Iraq - A large explosion heavily damaged the golden dome of one of Iraq’s most revered Shiite shrines Wednesday, spawning mass protests and sparking reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques. It was the third major attack against Shiite targets this week and threatened to stoke sectarian tensions.

Shiite leaders called for calm, but militants attacked Sunni mosques and a gunfight broke out between Shiite militiamen and guards at the offices of a Sunni political party in Basra. About 500 soldiers were sent to Sunni neighbourhoods in Baghdad to prevent clashes between Shiites and Sunnis, army Capt. Jassim al-Wahash said.

A leading Sunni politician, Tariq al-Hashimi, said 29 Sunni mosques had been attacked nationwide. He urged clerics and politicians to calm the situation “before it spins out of control.”

A government statement said several suspects had been detained in the early-morning attack on the Askariya shrine in this city about 100 kilometres north of Baghdad, and some of them “might have had been involved in carrying out the crime.”

[Beetwasher]

1. "And The Walls Come Tumbling Down"

And we thought all hell was breaking loose already? We ain't seen nuthin' yet.

[bemildred]

2. "The war of the Mosques" begins.

Yeah, we sure don't want this to "spin out of control" do we?

[leftchick]

9. yep, a bit of an understatement...

<snip>

“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 up arms and chase the people behind this attack.”

[DoYouEverWonder]

54. I'm sure Michael Ledeen

and Richard Perle are very happy men at the moment. Their getting everything they wished for and more.

[bemildred]

62. Battle of the mosques brings Iraq to the brink of civil war

Can I call 'em or what?

THE revenge attacks started within minutes of the devastating dawn blast that wrecked the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest Shia shrines in Iraq.

By the end of the day, as thousands of Iraqis spilt out on to the streets in protest and more than 90 mosques lay damaged or wrecked, Iraq’s political and religious leadership was struggling to avert a full-blown civil war. At least eighteen Sunnis including three clerics, were reported murdered.

The reprisal attack on al-Quds Sunni mosque in western Baghdad was typical. Residents ran for cover as more than a dozen masked Shia gunmen raked the building with bullets. The firing halted as suddenly as it had begun. The men stepped back into their six saloons and pulled away slowly, singing and waving jubilant V-signs from the windows. They were ushered from the scene by soldiers from an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint , who cheered and waved.

Such scenes were repeated across the country as thousands of people, many calling for revenge, massed in cities throughout the south of Iraq demonstrating against the desecration of the Golden Mosque.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2053587,00.html

[bemildred]

70. "War of mosques" erupts in Iraq

Arab media sources have called yesterday's events in Iraq a "War of Mosques".

---

I am hearing that a nationwide curfew has been imposed on the country by the Ministries of Defense and Interior in hopes of regaining control of the situation.

That's a farce.

---

According to people I have spoken to in Iraq, it is Sadr's people that are causing most of the violence and fight pitch battles with Sunnis.

http://truth-about-iraqis.blogspot.com/2006/02/war-of-mosques-erupts-in-iraq.html

[BlueEyedSon]

3. This is why the rule of law must supersede religious dogma. Here too, BTW.

[Squatch]

4. Whatever you do, do not draw cartoons of this...

[hatrack]

5. End of the line, folks

What a FUCKING MESS.

[Strelnikov_]

45. Yep. That's That.

Blackhawk Down to the 5th power.

'It's time to go'.

[ugarte]

6. Why doesn't the media report any of the good news?

:rofl:

[adigal]

16. They built an outhouse today n/t

[ugarte]

21. Yeah, and Halliburton brought it in at only $2 mil over budget...nt

[AzDar]

7. Dang! If my Gubmint hadn't told me things are going fine ,I'd swear

there's a CIVIL WAR goin' down over there.

[Peace Patriot]

8. Ah, the gift of Bushite democracy to Iraq!

The smell of burnt flesh. The rubble of mosques. The hatred stirred up. The solution of more bombs, more guns, more violence exemplified by Bush himself. Kill them, maim them, torture them, insult them, rob them, then force feed them with your laws and rules. And watch a people self-destruct.

[Roland99]

10. I'm sure the Iraqis just love that smell of freedom on the march

[Swede]

Uh oh!

This is gonna get messy. Good thing their are 100,000 teenage and early twenties Americans there.

[Lasher]

11. I want Helen Thomas to ask this one:

"Mr. President, is there a civil war in Iraq right now? And if there is not, could you please describe what a civil war would look like?"

[acmavm]

12. I'll bet they arrested everyone they could find on the streets,

connected to this horrible crime or no.

[HereSince1628]

13. So.there are lots of whoever and they are organized enough to coordinate

29 separate attacks.

I suppose Rumsfled will see this as proof the insurgency is getting smaller.

[MadMaddie]

53. But wasn't it Rumsfled who said....

when they were looting...."That's what Democracies do":sarcasm:

[WinkyDink]

14. Another success for Dubya.

Wonder if anybody will ask Scotty about this.

[adigal]

15. Can you say, "Civil War"?

Uh, duh. Who with half a brain didn't see this coming two years ago???

[TexasLawyer]

52. Three years ago.

One of the BIG reasons cited by the peace crowd (aka the "focus group") for avoiding war with Iraq was that it would unleash a massive civil war in that country.

I guess Bush shouldn't have ignored us.

[gauguin57]

17. Mission Accomplished!

Good grief. Well, I'm praying today for those poor people all caught in a s**tstorm created by s**tforbrains Bush.

[Jacobin]

18. Apparently, the tipping point has been reached

29 Shiite mosques attacked?

Its all over. Our troops are just in the way of a full blown civil war

[MadMaddie]

48. And this civil war will turn on our troops over there....

mix in some Iranian troops if * decides to change focus and attack Iran...

and what we are going to look at is a massacre of US troops!!

[Igel]

71. Sunni. Not Shi'ite. n/t

[wordpix]

19. ChimpCheney are wishing we'd go back to focusing on the shooting story

[rodeodance]

20. Cnn giving pretty good report just now--says 27 mosques attached

[hatrack]

22. See! It IS improving - the first report said 29 mosques!!

Damn liberal media!

:eyes:

[Critters2]

51. Our guys rebuilt 2 of 'em

That's what we're there for...building schools and mosques and winning the hearts and minds.

And doin' a heckuva job!

[janx]

42. kick

[sabra]

23. (Sunni) Cleric killed in Baghdad after attack on Samarra shrine

http://ww2.wpri.com/Global/story.asp?S=4535883

Cleric killed in Baghdad after attack on Samarra shrine

BAGHDAD, Iraq Gunmen in Iraq have killed a Sunni cleric in Baghdad as protests erupted following an explosion at a famous Shiite shrine.

The Iraqi Army says the cleric was sprayed with bullets as he entered a mosque.

Shiite leaders have been calling for calm following an early morning attack at a shrine in Samarra. But a leading Sunni politician says militants have attacked 29 Sunni mosques nationwide. He fears the situation could get "out of control."

No one has claimed responsibility for the Samarra attack, which heavily damaged the mosque's golden dome. But investigators think Sunni extremist groups could be to blame.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

24. 29 attacks!

but it 'might' get out of control. fer crying out loud.

[librechik]

25. war --good god.

and bad ones too.

Isn't this like blowing up Mecca? What muslim, even Sunnis, would do such a thing?

[ECH1969]

27. What muslim would blow up Sunnis in Jordan on their wedding day?

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

47. you have a point--------remember the Brits recently busted planting Bombs?

dressed as Arabs?

[wordpix]

36. Zarqawi-alQaeda in Iraq

[librechik]

40. yes--I read a few more headlines after this and it seems as if tit 4 tat

is everywhere in Iraq on both sides now.

:cry:

[Greeby]

26. Goodbye insurgency. Hello civil war

:(

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

28. I see they are not letting their religion get in the way of their hatred

It is forbidden to destroy a house of worship. It is forbidden for Muslim to fight and kill another Muslim. It is also forbidden to damage property and to injure innocent women, children, and old folks.

The Prophet (pbuh) brought forth a message of Unity. It is people who create the divisions.

The last lines of the Fatiha (first surah of the Qur'an, the one which is recited with every prayer)

Lead us on the straight path
The path of those who follow Your ways,
Not those who anger or go astray.

[Bandit]

38. Why do people here insist this is some sort of Religious War?

It really has nothing at all to do with religion other than that is the way they gather to discuss issues. This is all about people living in poverty while their rulers/Royalty sell off their oil from under their feet to the USA. They see through satellite TV how the USA lives in luxury and wallows in excess while they live in poverty. They don't hate us for our freedoms they hate the fact that we are stealing their birth rite through their corrupt rulers and feel they have no power to change things. This is the only way they have to get their voices heard. It has absolutely nothing to do with religion. Only in the USA is religion even brought up as an excuse. Virtually no Arab nation will say it is religious based.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

39. It is to this extent:

the fundamentalist Muslims are also a political movement. They do indeed persecute religious minorities, even if that minority is not doing anything violent. I'm thinking of the Sufis.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

56. SUFIS??

From what I know of Sufis, (generally speaking), they seem to be non-violent

links about Sufis:

msnbc

or

sufi beliefs

the National Geographic Channel had a great show
on the Sufis of Iran-
they are the "Mystics"- not concerned with worldly attainment or
physical pleasure/ sensory gratification--in fact they can transcend bodily pain

[MisterP]

58. the Sufis are the oft-persecuted minority Ayashi was talking of

he actually is one

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

64. did you check out my links?

[MadMaddie]

49. I think that that is part of it...

but it goes beyond that...

They have always rebelled against occupying forces. Many of these countries have fought England at one time or another....

They want the US to get out....

[MGKrebs]

29. Very ominous.

What little chance existed of salvaging progress in Iraq is teetering on a precipice.

[Swede]

30. HEY! They're about to reveal the Powerball winner.

What a maelstrom Bushy has gotten the whole world into.

[booksenkatz]

31. Sprayed with bullets, eh? Peppered, perhaps?

Too bad the cleric wasn't in Texas. People get sprayed down there constantly, all day long, and they only get their hair mussed.

[RedEarth]

32. All hell is getting ready to break loose in Iraq ....

[Army]

33. Always Been A Mess

In this part of the world. Always has been, always will be. Say goodbye to Babylon.

[rodeodance]

34. I hope our troops are bunkered down.

[sabra]

35. looks like we have some confirmation with the 29 attacks

as indicated in my GD Iraq blog post... :-(

[janx]

41. That was my first thought.

You caught that one early.

[wordpix]

37. they should get the hell out of there! But * won't do that

[janx]

43. If it gets much worse

he won't have any choice.

[Strelnikov_]

44. That Was My First Thought

'Fort Apache' also came to mind.

[MadMaddie]

55. I fear for our troops...

I am praying for their safety and safe return...

The * Cabal has destroyed our military.....

[lonestarnot]

46. Damn.

[Critters2]

50. These people know how to throw a

"last throe".

:nuke:

[janx]

57. Shrine Bombing Brings Deadly Reprisals

AP - 2 hours, 34 minutes ago

SAMARRA, Iraq - Insurgents detonated bombs inside one of Iraq's holiest Shiite shrines Wednesday, destroying its golden dome and triggering more than 90 reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques. The president warned that extremists were pushing the country toward civil war, as many Shiites lashed out at the United States as partly to blame. As the gold dome of the 1,200-year-old Askariya shrine lay in ruins, leaders on both sides called for calm: But the string of back-and-forth attacks seemed to push the country closer to all-out civil war than at any point in the three years since the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/iraq

[happydreams]

59. CIVIL WAR!!

This ends the arguement. Iraq is in Civil War mode.

[VegasWolf]

60. "Heck of job you're doing there Bushie!" One heck'uva a job.

:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:

[NightOwwl]

61. Murtha tried to tell Bush our troops were in the middle of a Civil War...

but dimson paid no heed.

How many of our men and women have to die before we bring them home where they belong?

[llmart]

63. Well, what the hell would someone like Murtha know......

anyway? Just because he actually has been in a war zone. Why, Coward-in-Chief Bush was a huge war hero don't you know? He served a couple of months in the National Guard on a very dangerous mission.

[shugah]

65. Iraq erupts in violence after shrine bombing

Iraq erupts in violence after shrine bombing

BAGHDAD — Shiite Muslims attacked dozens of Sunni mosques across Iraq on Wednesday in retaliation for the devastating bombing of one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites, the Askariya shrine in Samarra.

At least 19 people were killed in the wave of unrest, according to the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni political group.

The violence prompted fears among U.S. and Iraqi officials that the country's religious tensions could plunge the country into civil war.

~snip~

Iraqi police said at least 28 Sunni mosques were damaged in the wave of retaliatory attacks. The Iraqi Islamic Party put the number at 90, including more than 50 in Baghdad — that were shot at, burned or taken over by Shiites.

The United States urged restraint. "The Iraqi people, in this hour of sadness and anger over a despicable crime, must not allow themselves to be divided," said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George Casey, the ranking U.S. officer in Iraq, in a statement.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-02-22-iraq-shrine_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

[gristy]

66. holy shit

Our boys are over there.

[CAG]

67. But, "the insurgency is in its last throes", isn't it????

Over 100,000 of our men and women are right in the middle of this mess.
What other disasters can befall the world before Nov 2008?

[shugah]

68. 'mission accomplished'

keith olberman on msnbc has taken to ending his newscasts with "x number of days since 'mission accomplished' declared in iraq."

[NanceGreggs]

69. "... the wave of unrest"

We had a wave of unrest like that here once. I think it later became known as the Civil War ...

[Tight_rope]

72. What fucking disaster. Who didn't see this coming!

I curse the entire Bush mis administration for all the problems that they have caused on earth. May they all rot in eternal hell.:nuke: