Suspected Al-Qaida militants blew up two minarets of a revered Shi'ite mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra yesterday, targeting a shrine bombed last year in an attack that unleashed a wave of sectarian killing.

 

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Fearing renewed bloodshed, Iraq's government imposed an indefinite curfew in Baghdad as Shi'ite and Sunni political and religious leaders called on their followers to remain calm.

 

In a joint statement, the top US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and US ambassador Ryan Crocker called on Iraqis to "reject this call to violence."

 

"This brutal action on one of Iraq's holiest shrines is a deliberate attempt by Al-Qaida to sow dissent and inflame sectarian strife among the people of Iraq. It is an act of desperation," the statement said.

 

Addressing the nation hours after the attack, Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki also blamed Al- Qaida for the attack. He said he had ordered the arrest of security personnel who had been guarding the mosque, closed after the February 22, 2006, bombing that destroyed its famed golden dome.

 

There were no injuries reported in yesterday's attack on the Golden Mosque, details of which were not immediately clear.

 

The Iraqi government's spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said it appeared the mosque's golden minarets had been hit by missiles, but the US military, quoting police at the scene, said they were destroyed in near simultaneous explosions heard coming from inside the mosque compound.

 

The country's top Shi'ite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged Shi'ites not to carry out revenge attacks against Sunni Arabs.

 

"He condemns the attack and urges calm and not to do acts of reprisal against Sunnis," said his spokesman, Hamed Khafaf.

 

A similar call made by Sistani after militants blew up the mosque's golden dome in February 2006 was ignored as Shi'ite militiamen took to the streets to take revenge on Sunnis, fuelling tit-for-tat attacks.

 

Iraq's Sunni vice-president, Tareq al-Hashemi, said yesterday's attack was a "desperate attempt to attack the unity of the Iraqi people and bring back the black events that Iraq witnessed last year."

 

The political bloc of fiery anti-American cleric Moqtadaal-Sadr also urged its supporters to remain calm but said it was suspending its participation in parliament in protest. Sadr withdrew his six ministers from the cabinet in April.

 

After the 2006 bombing, gunmen loyal to Sadr, killed many Sunni Arabs in revenge attacks.

 

(China Daily June 14, 2007)