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15 Killed in Fresh Attack on Iraqi Shiite Mosque
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An Iraqi citizen severely injured in the car bomb on a Shiite mosque in Baghdad (Reuters)
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BAGHDAD,
January 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least 15
people were killed and 40 others, including seven children, wounded on
Friday, January 21, when a car bomb blast hit a Shiite mosque in
Baghdad, raising anew warnings of a sectarian violence in the
turbulent country.
"There
are 15 killed, including two women and two children," said Yarmuk
hospital morgue director Naji Chinchan, Agence France Presse (AFP)
reported.
The
blast occurred at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT), ripping through the
Shuhada al-Taf Shiite mosque in southwestern Baghdad while Shiite
worshippers were pouring out of the mosque after performing the Eid Al
Adha prayers, which fell on Friday for the Iraqi Shiites.
"The
people were leaving the mosque when someone sped up in a car and
rammed a minibus which was parked there in front of the mosque,"
guard Mohammed Mahmud told an AFP reporter on the scene.
The
blast shrapnel and debris cut children who had gathered around Shiite
Dawa party volunteers for candies, cake and watches being given away
to celebrate the holiday, said the mosque caretaker Mahmud Mohammed
Ali.
The
scene was the more horrendous. Children's shoes, sandals and an abaya
-- the traditional black dress worn by Shiite women -- could be seen
in puddles of blood in front of the mosque.
Several
cars were also charred by the blast and dozens of nearby buildings
damaged.
Sectarian
Strife
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Doctors move a young girl injured in the car bomb attack (Reuters) |
The
new attacks raised fears the country could descend into civil war, as
relations between Sunnis and Shiites see not their best times.
"It
is quite obvious why there is such an attack. They are trying to
create sectarian strife," the leader of the Supreme Council of
the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) Abdel-Aziz Hakim told AFP.
Hakim,
the frontrunner in the January 30 elections – widely boycotted by
the Sunni leaders - said the two camps of Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab
Al-Zarqawi and the Saddam loyalists had since 2003 carried out
high-profile attacks on
Iraq's Shiite majority with the goal of instigating a sectarian strife.
"Over
the last period, they have worked toward achieving this criminal goal.
They have killed the late Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim. They
have killed Governing Council members Ezzedine Salim and Akila
Hashemi."
All
these attempts were trying to divide and create strife among the
people of
Iraq. They did not succeed."
In
an audio tape posted on an Internet Web site hours before
US
President George W. Bush was sworn in for his second presidential
term, Zarqawi threatened the
US
administration that the war in
Iraq
would drag on for “months and years”.
The
tape accused Iraqi Shiites of taking part in the US-led assault on
Fallujah in November, branding the Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, as an "imam of infidelity and apostasy".
Sistani
has called for Iraqi Shiites to vote in the January 30 elections,
although Sunni leaders urged a boycott of the polls to avoid
establishing the foreign occupation of the oil-rich country.
Similar
Concerns
Iraq’s vice-president and leader of the Shiite Dawa party Ibrahim
al-Jaafari raised similar concerns.
However,
"neither Sunnis nor Shiites are prepared to accept civil
war," he told Reuters this week.
"Iraqis
have been through many tests but coexistence has held."
"The
background of those who are victimizing Shiites might be Sunni, but
there is wide understanding that they do not represent Sunni
thinking," he added.
Iraqi
interior minister warned Tuesday, January 19, that the country risked
sliding into civil war if the Iraqi Sunnis boycott the January 30
polls.
US
analysts and officials had predicted a week ago the coming
controversial Iraqi polls were likely to lead to more chaos and
instability.
Holding
the elections would be impossible unless “first and foremost
security improves”, UN Iraqi envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said.Iraqi
voters are to choose a 275-member assembly, which will be charged with
writing a permanent constitution.
If
adopted in a referendum later this year, the constitution would form
the legal basis for another general elections to be held by December,
2005.
More
Attacks
Meanwhile,
six Iraqi soldiers and three Iraqi contractors were killed in a
string of attacks in the predominantly Sunni areas north of
Baghdad, police and military sources said.
The
three Iraqi contractors working with the
US
occupation forces were killed in a shooting attack near the refinery
town of
Baiji, police and medical sources said.
“Three
contractors were killed when their vehicle was ambushed in the Maqhul
area," said police Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Salah.
"The
documents we found on their bodies indicate they were working with the
US
army."
Three
soldiers were also killed and two others wounded in a rocket attack
against an Iraqi military base in Duluiyah, said Captain Saad Amjad.
Katyusha
rockets struck the base during the change of the guard, the police
officer said.
Other
two other Iraqi soldiers were killed and two wounded in a roadside
bomb attack on their patrol in the centre of Iraqi city of
Samarra, Captain Mohammed Saadun said.
In
Tuz, a town north of Tikrit, another soldier was killed and four
others wounded in similar circumstances, Lieutenant Sajed al-Bayati
said.
In
the city of
Nasiriyah, a member of the Italian military contingent in
Iraq
was killed Friday when his helicopter came under fire, ANSA news
agency reported citing military officials.
The
soldier was rushed to a hospital where he died of his wounds.
Defense
Minister Antonio Martino said in a statement he was "deeply
saddened" by the news.
Italy
has deployed some 3,000 troops in southern
Iraq.
Martino
had told a parliamentary committee Thursday that the area under
Italian control "is absolutely not secure from attempts by groups
opposed to the (Iraqi) government and the (US-led) coalition to
undermine the electoral process" in Iraq.
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