பாஸ்ராவில் சுன்னி மசூதி ஷியாக்களால் தகர்க்கப்பட்டது

பாஸ்ரா நகரத்தில் பெரும்பான்மையினர் ஷியா மக்களே. அங்கு இருக்கும் பெரிய சுன்னி மசூதியை ஷியா பிரிவின் தீவிரவாதிகள் தாக்கி முழுவதுமாக தூள்தூளாக உடைத்தனர்.

இந்த தீவிரவாதிகள் சினிமாஎடுப்பவர்கள் போல வேடமிட்டு உள்ளே நுழைந்ததாக காவலாளிகள் கூறுகின்றனர்.

ஷியா பெரும்பான்மையாக இருக்கும் ஈராகியா அரசு இதனை தீவிரமாக கண்டித்து, இந்த குற்றத்தை செய்தவர்களை தண்டிக்க விழைகிறது.

அல் அஸ்கரி ஷியா மசூதியை சுன்னி /அல்குவேதா தீவிரவாதிகள் உடைத்ததன் பிறகு ஏராளமான சுன்னி மசூதிகள் தாக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன.

Iraq Sunni shrine bombed amid reprisal attacks by Abdel Karim Jamil
Fri Jun 15, 1:49 PM ET

BASRA, Iraq (AFP) - Assailants pretending to be a film crew blew up and destroyed a Sunni shrine near the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Friday as militants carried out more revenge attacks for the bombing of a Shiite shrine.

The US military, meanwhile, announced the deaths of five more soldiers taking its losses already this month to 36.

The shrine of Talha bin Obeidallah in the town of Zubair, west of overwhelmingly Shiite Basra, was destroyed at dawn, an Iraqi army officer told AFP.

"A group of people carrying a camera arrived at the Talha bin Obeidallah shrine at 6:00 am (0200 GMT)," said Major General Ali Mussawi.

"They said they wanted to film the mosque. But they went about planting bombs around it.

"The structure is completely destroyed," he said, adding that the shrine's security guards had been detained for questioning.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned what he described as a terrorist act and ordered an indefinite curfew imposed on British-patrolled Basra from 4:00 pm (1200 GMT) Friday to prevent any further tit-for-tat violence.

"The terrorist act which targeted the shrine came as part of a series of crimes aimed at inflaming sectarian passions among the sons of the country," the Shiite premier said in a statement.

"Those who have committed it are enemies of Allah, the country and the people."

Several Sunni mosques have been attacked in Iraq since Wednesday's bombing of the Shiite Al-Askari shrine in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Immediately after the bombing, at least four Sunni mosques were targeted, three south of Baghdad in the town of Iskandiriyah and one in the capital.

Three more were hit on Thursday and the US military said a Shiite mosque in the town of Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad, was also attacked.

But the imposition of curfews in both Samarra and Baghdad helped prevent any wider outbreak of sectarian violence.

On Friday, the curfew in Baghdad which was to be lifted Saturday was further extended till Sunday morning, state television reported, quoting government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.

It was an attack on the same Samarra shrine by Al-Qaeda militants in February 2006 that triggered the sectarian fighting between the Shiite majority and the Sunni minority that rages on to this day.

The earlier bombing destroyed the shrine's golden dome.

US officials blame Wednesday's bombing, in which the mosque's two gold-topped minarets were destroyed, also on Al-Qaeda.

More than 650 Iraqi and US troop reinforcements have been sent to reinforce protection of the shrine since the attack, the US military said.

Iraqi authorities have also detained 13 police guards at the shrine for questioning.

Police snipers posted around the shrine shot dead two suspects, police Major Ahmed Majid told AFP from the provincial capital of Tikrit.

The five latest deaths announced by the US military took its losses since the 2003 invasion to 3,512, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

Three of the soldiers died from wounds sustained in a roadside bombing in the northern oil city of Kirkuk on Thursday.

A joint Iraqi and US team meanwhile raided the office of the movement of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr in the town of Suwaira, southeast of Baghdad, police Lieutenant Najim Abdullah said.

"A team of Iraqi and US forces raided Sadr's office in the town. There was an exchange of fire in which two militants were killed," Abdullah said.

The officer's director, Sheikh Haider al-Mussawi, and five other people were detained, he added.

The US military in Baghdad had no immediate comment.