Several Mosques Targeted in Iraq
Several Sunni mosques were attacked or burned in Iraq on Thursday after an attack on a shrine in Samarra on Wednesday. The “war of mosques” has stoked fears of a surge of violence between Muslim sects in Iraq.
Attacks on Sunni mosques began several hours after Wednesday’s bombings in Samarra.
One of those mosques, which had been partly destroyed in an attack on Wednesday, was a target again Thursday. Around 4 a.m., attackers broke into the Hateen mosque in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, and planted bombs inside. The huge explosion destroyed most of the building, wounding a woman and child in a nearly apartment, Iskandariyah police said.
Gunmen also tried to storm the nearby al-Mustafa mosque, and exchanged fire with guards before Iraqi soldiers arrived and stopped them.
In Mahaweel, south of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on the al-Basheer mosque at dawn. They forced guards to leave and set fire to the mosque, a local police officer said on the condition of anonymity. The building was partly damaged.
Wednesday’s attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra has stoked fears of a surge in violence between Muslim sects. A bombing at the same mosque complex last February 2006 unleashed a string of reprisals.
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All the Article in Russian as of June 15, 2007
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