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| Iraq |
| Sunni mosques attacked after Shia shrine bombing |
| 2007-06-15 |
| BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three Sunni mosques were bombed in Iraq on Thursday in apparent reprisals for an attack on a revered Shia shrine, sparking fears of fresh sectarian bloodletting. Curfews were swiftly imposed in Baghdad and in Samarra, where suspected Al Qaeda militants on Wednesday bombed the Al Askari mosque, but at least six Sunni mosques have been attacked, including one in the capital. The destruction of Samarra’s two gold-covered minarets came after an initial attack on the shrine in 2006, also blamed on Al Qaeda, sparked Sunni-Shia reprisals that have claimed tens of thousands of lives. Early Thursday, two Sunni mosques in Iskandiriyah and one in Mahawil, both south of Baghdad, were bombed, Lieutenant Kamal Al Ameri of Hilla police told AFP. One of the Iskandiriyah mosques had already been attacked on Wednesday, along with two others in the town and one in Baghdad -- the latter despite a curfew in the capital that was due to be lifted on Saturday. ‘Insurgents bombed the mosque again today at around 4:00 am (midnight GMT) and shrapnel from the bomb wounded a woman and girl in a nearby apartment,’ Ameri said of Iskandiriyah’s twice-bombed Al Hatteen mosque. He said that on Wednesday unknown men had launched a coordinated attack on the town’s Grand Mosque, first with bombs and then with rocket-propelled grenades. |
| Posted by:Steve White |