Iraq Blast Destroys Gold Dome of Shrine
Suspected insurgents blew up the gold-domed shrine in Samarra that houses two important Shiite imams today in an act apparently tailored to stoke sectarian passions between Iraq’s Shiite majority and Sunni minority.
Witnesses near the Askari shrine complex said it was badly damaged in one and possibly two 6:45 a.m. explosions. There was no official word of casualties, but some witnesses said victims might be under the rubble.
Little of the massive gold dome remained, witnesses said. Residents were angrily chanting, “God is great.”
The explosions targeted the burial site of the 10th and 11th imams in the Shiite faith, both descendants of the prophet Muhammad. Also damaged was a basement to the shrine complex where the Imam Mahdi, the 12th and last figure in Shiism, was said to have disappeared.
His possible reappearance is considered by Shiites as the heralding of a new age.
The shrine complex in the mostly Sunni Arab city on the Tigris River is a major pilgrimage site for the world’s Shiite Muslims. The attack is sure to heighten tensions in the power struggle between Iraq’s Shiites and Sunnis, as well as stoke the anger of Shiites in Iran, the Persian Gulf states and South Asia.
Special correspondent Zaydan Khalaf in Samarra contributed to this report.
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