Irak 31

Waar iedere verstandig deskundige voor waarschuwde dreigt nu werkelijkheid te worden: een Irakese burgeroorlog als indirect gevolg van het gewelddadig beleid van de neoconservatieve extremisten in de regering Bush. De International Herald Tribune bericht: 'Shiite fury explodes in Iraq; scores are killed. At least 47 people, some of them prominent Sunni Arab clerics, were killed in revenge attacks in Baghdad in the chaotic 24 hours following the bombing of one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, in the town of Samarra, an Interior Ministry official said Thursday. At least 40 more bodies were found south of Baghdad, and more were being discovered throughout the day across Iraq. Sunni Arab politicians broke off talks with Shiite and Kurdish leaders over the formation of a new government, saying they would not engage in discussions until apologies had been made for dozens of attacks that took place Wednesday against Sunni mosques and leaders. Thousand of Shiites took to the streets across Iraq in a second day of protests against the insurgent attack in Samarra, which destroyed the golden dome of Al Askariya, the shrine where two revered Shiite imams are buried…. The attack on the shrine has sparked the worst sectarian conflict in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion, with Iraqi leaders and clerics calling for restraint and trying to steer the country away from exploding into full-fledged civil war. The top U.S. military commanders and the U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, have been talking with Iraqi leaders to try to defuse the groundswell of anger among Sunni and Shiite Arabs. The violence began on Wednesday morning, when a powerful bomb shattered the golden dome of Al Askariya and set off a day of sectarian fury in which mobs formed across Iraq to chant for revenge and attacked dozens of Sunni mosques. The bombing, 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, north of Baghdad, wounded no one but left the famous golden dome at the site in ruins. The shrine is central to one of the most dearly held beliefs of Shiite Islam, and the bombing, coming after two days of bloody attacks that have left dozens of Shiite civilians dead, ignited a nationwide outpouring of rage and panic that seemed to bring Iraq closer than ever to outright civil war. Shiite militia members flooded the streets of Baghdad, firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at Sunni mosques while Iraqi Army soldiers who had been called out to stop the violence stood helpless nearby. By the day's end, mobs had struck or destroyed 27 Sunni mosques in the capital, killing three imams and kidnapping a fourth, Interior Ministry officials said. In all, at least 15 people were killed in related violence across the country... The Shiite cleric and political leader Moktada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia led many of the violent protests on Wednesday, placed some blame on what he called the "occupation forces" for the bombing but did not give more details. Sadr told the Arabic satellite network Al Jazeera that he was cutting short his visit in Lebanon because of the bombing... The violence was not confined to big cities. In Salman Pak, a town just south of Baghdad, Shiite militia members evacuated a Sunni mosque and a religious school, warning the imam that he would be killed if he did not leave the town within two days.' Lees verder: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/23/news/iraq.php