Terrorists Strike Twice… Bomb Minarets at Golden Mosque

Terrorists re-bomb the remains of the Golden Mosque in Samarra.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki imposes curfew.
Revered cleric Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shi’ite religious leader, calls for restraint.
(Long live al-Sistani!)

The famous Shiite Golden Mosque in Samarra: (Top left) In 2004 before Al Qaeda blew it up. (top right) After Al Qaeda blast in February 2006 (Bottom left and right) Pictures from today after terrorists blew up the two remaining minarets.

Al Qaeda is again suspected in Golden Mosque bombing.
The AP reported:

Suspected al-Qaida insurgents on Wednesday destroyed the two minarets of the Askariya Shiite shrine in Samarra, authorities reported, in a repeat of a 2006 bombing that shattered its famous Golden Dome and unleashed a wave of retaliatory sectarian violence that still bloodies Iraq.

Police said the attack at about 9 a.m. involved explosives and brought down the two minarets, which had flanked the dome’s ruins. No casualties were reported.

The attack immediately stirred fears of a new explosion of Sunni-Shiite bloodshed. There are close ties between al-Qaida and some Iraqi Sunni militants. State television said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki quickly imposed an indefinite curfew on vehicle traffic and large gatherings in Baghdad as of 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Just before the curfew was to take hold, Shiite militiamen carrying light weapons fanned out across Jihad, a mixed neighborhood in western Baghdad, police said. No violence was immediately reported.

The 30-member bloc loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr suspended its membership in parliament Wednesday, saying they will stay away from the 275-seat house until the government takes “realistic” steps to rebuild the Askariya shrine.

Al-Maliki met with the U.S. commander in Iraq to ask that American reinforcements be sent into Samarra to help head off new violence in the flashpoint city 60 miles north of Baghdad, al-Maliki’s office said.

Al-Maliki’s Dawa Party issued a statement blaming al-Qaida for attempting to “burn Iraq with the fire of sectarian strife” and calling for an immediate investigation.

“We call upon our Iraqi people to exercise self-restraint and not be dragged into reactions like those planned by the killers,” it said.

Iran says the oil-mongering occupiers are responsible.

Ahmadinejad also blamed the bullying powers occupying Iraq.
Fars News reported:

Regarding Iraq, he said that the US is stuck in the quagmire it itself has created in Iraq, and pointing to the blast this morning at the shrines of the Shiite Muslims’ 10th and 11th Imams in Samara, Iraq, he reminded that the aggression and desecration of the holy shrines in Samara has happened under the patronage of Iraq’s occupiers.

“You must know that you are further incarcerating yourselves by adopting such measures; do not do something that would push us to (undesirable) decisions and that would make people refrain from rendering the smallest help to you,” he warned.

No doubt, several US Leftists will soon join him in his condemnation.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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