Blast hits Shia mosque in Samarra
The US military has said it is monitoring the situation
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Wednesday, 13, Jun 2007 11:53
An explosion has damaged two minarets belonging to the Golden Mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra, raising fears of a rise in sectarian violence in the troubled country.
The mosque was targeted last year when a blast hit the golden dome. Shia Muslim groups blamed Sunni Muslim al-Qaida militants for the attack, resulting in reprisals in Baghdad.
US forces in Iraq are now monitoring the situation closely to prevent any outbreak in violence from the Samarra bombing.
Saleh al-Haidari, head of the Shia endowment in Iraq, told the Reuters news agency: "The explosion targeted the two golden minarets. They have been damaged. This is a criminal act which aims at creating sectarian strife."
Samarra's holiest site houses the graves of some of Shia Islam's most significant imams and a senior government official described the attack as "very bad news for Iraq".
Two imams buried at the shrine are Inam Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868 and his son Hasan al-Askari, who died in 874.
The city has now been put under a curfew to try and calm the situation and prevent any further violence.
Last year's attack destroyed the mosque's symbolic dome in a dawn bombing despite a security crackdown in the area to protect Iraq's holy Islamic sites.
The mosque is one of the four holiest Shia sites in Iraq in what is a predominantly Sunni city.
Today's attack followed what witnesses describe as clashes between police and gunmen during the morning.