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.
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