A large explosion yesterday heavily damaged the golden dome of one of Iraq's most famous Shiite shrines, sending protesters into the streets and triggering reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques. It was the third major attack against Shiite targets in as many days.
Shiite leaders called for calm. But militants attacked Sunni mosques, killing one cleric, and a gunfight broke out between Shiite militiamen and guards at a Sunni political party in Basra. Army Captain Jassim al-Wahash said about 500 soldiers were sent to Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad to prevent clashes between Shiites and Sunnis.
A leading Sunni politician, Tariq al-Hashimi, told reporters 29 Sunni mosques had been attacked nationwide. He urged clerics and politicians to calm the situation ``before it spins out of control.''
No group claimed responsibility for the early morning attack on the Askariya shrine in the city of Samarra, 95km north of Baghdad. But suspicion fell on Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr blamed the bombing on Sunni Arab militants and vowed to take revenge, a spokesman for Sadr said.
"We will not only condemn and protest but we will act against those militants. If the Iraqi government does not do its job to defend the Iraqi people we are ready to do so," said Abdel Hadi al-Darajee of Sadr's position.
The Interior Ministry said four men, one wearing a military uniform and three in black, entered the mosque early yesterday and detonated two bombs, one of which collapsed the dome and damaged part of the northern wall of the shrine.
A government statement said "several suspects" had been detained and some of them "might have been involved in carrying out the crime."
Police believed some people might be buried under the debris after the 6:55am explosion but there were no confirmed figures.
The shrine contains the tombs of two revered Shiite imams, both descendants of the Prophet Mohammed, and is among Iraq's most sacred sites for Shiite Muslims.
Major Sunni groups also joined in the condemning the attack.
The Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars called the bombing a ``criminal act,'' and a Sunni political alliance blamed ``evil people'' for trying to divide Iraq.
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