Iraqi leaders were yesterday bidding to thwart a potential Shiite backlash against Sunnis a day after an attack in a Baghdad Shiite mosque killed 79 worshippers and revived fears of civil war.
Suicide bombers, at least two of them dressed as women, blew themselves up on Friday in the Barath mosque as they stepped out of the sanctuary after prayers, in one of the biggest attacks against the majority Shiite community.
Thousands of Shiites were gathering in central Baghdad for an address by their powerful leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, head of the main Shiite party the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
PHOTO: AP
Young men, carrying banners and green flags, were emerging from various streets of Baghdad and flocking towards the office of Hakim, raising slogans against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the frontman of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
"No No to Zarqawi," "No No to terrorists" said some of the banners they held.
Hakim had blamed the bombings on forces loyal to the former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein.
"These mobs of Saddamists do not care about innocent lives and they are perpetrating genocide against Shiites," he said.
Grief-stricken relatives were taking the bodies of their loved ones from hospitals and heading to the southern Shiite holy city of Najaf for burials.
Fearing possible Shiite reprisals, similar to those after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Samarra shrine, Iraqi and US authorities were on high alert in Baghdad.
The dynamiting of the Shiite shrine in Sammara triggered a wave of Shiite reprisals against Sunnis across Iraq.
Hundreds, mostly Sunni Arabs, died in the ensuing tit-for-tat killings between the two ethnic Muslim groups.
Friday's blasts marked the second major attack on Iraq's dominant Shiite community in as many days and heightened fears that the country was disintegrating into a civil war along religious and ethnic lines.
"This was clearly perpetrated by those who wish to divide Iraq, who wish to encourage sectarian strife. And it was perpetrated by individuals who clearly have no respect for religion," said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack in Washington.
He said the US government would work with Iraqi authorities to try to "prevent similar types of attack" despite escalating violence against the Shiite community by minority Sunni Muslim extremists.
The attack comes as the US and Britain push Iraq's political leaders to form a national unity government as soon as possible.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said the attack was "another attempt to derail the political process and fuel a sectarian conflict."
The US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad urged "all Iraqis to exercise restraint in the wake of this tragedy, to come together to fight terror, to continue to resist the provocation to sectarian violence."
Sunni political and religious associations also condemned the blast.
The attack followed a car bombing on Thursday that killed 10 people in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf and came amid political deadlock as Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari refused to back down amid pressure to step down.
Almost four months after its national election, Iraqi leaders have failed to come up with a working cabinet due to bitter wrangling between various parliamentary blocs on ministerial posts and Jaafari's candidacy.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS