Iraq on edge after attack on shrine

The twin explosions Wednesday at one of Iraq’s holiest Shiite Muslim shrines, heavily damaged in an attack last year, dealt a powerful blow to the U.S.-led security plan, seen as a last chance to stem sectarian bloodshed in Baghdad and surrounding areas.

Officials imposed curfews, Iraqis hunkered down in their homes, and a top U.S. commander said he had a “sinking feeling” Wednesday after bombs leveled two minarets at the Golden Mosque in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Despite calls for calm from religious and political leaders, reports of revenge attacks against Sunni Muslim mosques began trickling in within hours of the 9 a.m. blasts, which came nearly 16 months after militants blew up the Shiite shrine’s famed golden dome. The February 2006 blast, viewed as a turning point in the Iraq war, touched off a wave of reprisal killings and warfare that left an estimated 34,000 people dead and many more displaced.

The prospect of a replay of that violence caused panic in Baghdad, where residents stocked up on food and other supplies, driving up the black-market price for gasoline. Huge traffic jams formed as residents tried to hurry home.

“It is like a country about to be hit by a hurricane,” said one Baghdad resident, who gave his name only as Tariq.

No one took responsibility for the attack, although U.S. officials suggested it bore the hallmark of Sunni insurgents linked to Al Qaeda. In a TV interview, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said he had a “terrible sinking feeling” when he heard the mosque had been hit again. But, he told ABC News, there was reason to hope that the Al Qaeda terrorist network had overplayed its hand.

“Frankly, it is our hope that this can galvanize the Iraqi leaders to unite against this form of extremism,” he said.

Other observers took a more grim view.

“This attack may well prove to be the nail in the coffin of the security plan,” said Joost Hiltermann, Middle East director of the International Crisis Group. “Now I think it is time for Plan B.”

The attack threatened to deepen the crisis besetting Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s Shiite-led government, which has been unable to negotiate the political compromises that U.S. officials believe are needed to win the confidence of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority that feels sidelined after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Within hours of the blasts, followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr suspended participation in parliament to protest the government’s failure to protect holy sites. Sadr’s Al Mahdi militiamen have been blamed for many of the revenge attacks after last year’s bombing at the shrine.

Maliki, who toured the ruins Wednesday, also faced a potential backlash from Shiite radicals who have remained on the sidelines during the security plan that has sent thousands of U.S. troops into the capital and adjacent regions.

As curfews fell on four volatile cities and reinforcements moved into Samarra, political and religious leaders on both sides of the sectarian divide lined up before TV cameras to appeal for restraint.

U.S. military planners had warned that Sunni Arab insurgents linked to Al Qaeda were planning spectacular strikes to provoke Shiites back into battle. One senior Pentagon official specifically named the Samarra mosque in March when outlining U.S. concerns.

“My guess is they are going to try a repeat of Samarra,” the official said at the time, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing internal planning. “They may go back to Samarra and say, ‘We didn’t really level the place.’ Imagine that, perception-wise -- to go back to Samarra and finish the job.”

The latest attack did almost that. Only the clock tower and walls were left standing. No casualties were reported.

Police at the scene said they heard two nearly simultaneous blasts coming from inside the shrine at 9 a.m., the U.S. military said in a statement.

The blasts kicked up a huge cloud of dust and sent food tumbling from the shelves at Hatam Khalaf’s grocery store, about 200 yards from the shrine.

“I went outside to see what happened, and then I saw that the two minarets were gone. I was stunned,” he said in a telephone interview.

President Bush denounced the attack and said he had dispatched troops to Samarra to help restore order.

“This barbarous act was clearly aimed at inflaming sectarian tensions among the peoples of Iraq and defeating their aspirations for a secure, democratic, and prosperous country,” Bush said in a statement.

Earlier in Washington, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow sought to deflect blame from the U.S. military, noting that the guarding of Muslim shrines has mostly been handed over to the Baghdad government.

“You got to keep in mind, there’s a lot of sensitivity about Americans being on Shia holy sites,” Snow said at his daily briefing in Washington. “The Iraqis, for understandable reasons, have said, you know, we want to be able to protect our sites.”

Maliki blamed the attack on Sunni insurgents linked to both Al Qaeda and groups loyal to Hussein. But rumors spread quickly that it was an inside job. Maliki said the shrine’s guards were detained for questioning, and the Interior Ministry said members of an unspecified terrorist group also were apprehended in Samarra.

Authorities in Samarra imposed an immediate ban on vehicular traffic and large gatherings. By 3 p.m., Baghdad also was locked down. Iskandariya, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, and the southern city of Basra also were under indefinite curfews.

“I think it is clear to everybody that the surge is not working,” said Vali Nasr, a Middle East expert at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. “At the end of the day, the U.S. has proven to be as ineffective at protecting the shrine in 2007 as they were in 2006.... This favors the whole militia culture in Iraq.”

Officials had reported a drop in the number of execution-style killings of Sunnis, typically blamed on Shiite militias, at the start of the U.S.-Iraqi troop buildup in February. But the figures have started to climb again. Police in Baghdad on Wednesday found the bullet-riddled bodies of at least 25 men.

Armed Al Mahdi militiamen took to the streets of Sadr City and other Shiite neighborhoods in east Baghdad, but many of them dispersed after Sadr issued a statement saying that Sunni Muslims were not responsible for the latest Samarra bombing.

The anti-U.S. cleric blamed the “hidden hand of the occupier” and called for three days of national mourning and peaceful demonstrations.

Police in Baghdad reported that a Sunni mosque was set on fire and that mortar rounds killed at least four people in largely Shiite parts of the city. There were reports of gunfire aimed at mosques in Basra and Iskandariya, where a minaret also was reportedly damaged by a rocket-propelled grenade.

In other developments, the U.S. military announced the deaths of three more service members in the last two days.

One soldier died when his vehicle hit a bomb early Tuesday in south Baghdad, and a Marine died the same day in combat in Al Anbar province. Another soldier died Monday in a blast in east Baghdad. At least 3,513 U.S. troops have died in the Iraq theater since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, according to the website icasualties.org.

--

zavis@latimes.com

Times staff writers Peter Spiegel in Washington and Julian E. Barnes, Raheem Salman, Wail Alhafith and Saif Hameed in Baghdad, and special correspondents in Baghdad, Samarra and Hillah contributed to this report.

--

Begin text of infobox

A place in history

The Askariya Shrine, or Golden Mosque, in Samarra is among Iraq’s most sacred sites for Shiite Muslims. Its famous towering golden dome was destroyed in a bombing last year blamed on Sunni Arab militants linked to Al Qaeda. Similar factions are believed responsible for the blasts Wednesday that brought down its two minarets.

The shrine contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th Shiite imams Ali Hadi and his son, Hasan Askari, who died in the 9th century. Shiites believe they were poisoned and that Askari’s young son, Mohammed Mahdi -- the 12th, or hidden, imam -- disappeared into a cellar near the shrine, an event called the occultation. They believe Mahdi survived and will return as a savior, heralding a new age and avenging the wrongs done to Shiites for centuries.

The Samarra complex dates to the 9th century, though the landmark golden dome was completed in 1905.

Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, is one of four cities in Iraq holy to Shiites. Its Great Mosque, with a 170-foot spiral minaret, is one of Iraq’s most recognized landmarks.

--

Sources: Associated Press, Times reporting