Gunmen Attack Mosque in Western Baghdad

[cal04]

Gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad on Saturday despite an unusual daytime curfew aimed at curbing a wave of sectarian violence, police said. Mosque guards returned fire, said police Lt. Thaer Mahmoud. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Baghdad and three surrounding provinces have been under a daytime curfew for two days as authorities attempt to rein in violence that has killed more than 140 people since an attack Wednesday on a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra. That triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060225/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_mosque_attack

Holy city hit with bomb blast
A NEW bombing hit the Shiite holy city of Karbala in Iraq today, killing at least four people and further fuelling sectarian tensions still raw from the bombing of one of the faith's holiest shrines. Dozens of people were also wounded in the blast which struck near a police station 3km from the city centre, police said. The bombing, which came hot on the heels of the destruction Wednesday of the golden dome of one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in the town of Samarra, posed a new challenge to the authorities's efforts to calm sectarian tensions.

Iraq imposed a daytime curfew in Baghdad and other central provinces for a second straight day today as the authorities scrambled to cap tit-fot-tat violence between the Shiite majority and the ousted Sunni Arab elite. But 12 farm labourers were still discovered shot dead in an orchard in one of the provinces, Diyala, in the latest in a spate of multiple killings since Wednesday's attack on the revered mausoleum.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18273145%255E1702,00.html

[maddezmom]

1. more violence reported here: Attacks Surge in Iraq Despite Curfew

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb exploded in a Shiite holy city and 13 members of one Shiite family were gunned down northeast of the capital Saturday in a surge of attacks that killed at least 30 people despite heightened security aimed at curbing sectarian violence following the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine.

At least one more Sunni mosque was attacked in Baghdad on Saturday after two rockets were fired at a Shiite mosque in Tuz Khormato, north of the capital, the previous night. Shooting also broke out near the home of a prominent Sunni cleric as the funeral procession for an Al-Arabiya TV correspondent slain in sectarian violence was passing by. Police believed the procession was the target.

The violence occurred despite an extraordinary daytime curfew in Baghdad and three surrounding provinces. Stretched security forces could not be everywhere to contain attacks that have killed more than 150 people since Wednesday's shrine bombing and pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.

Political and religious leaders were anxious to contain the violence unleashed by extremists on both sides, which have frozen efforts to form a new government that Washington considers essential if it is to reduce U.S. troop levels this year.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060225/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_

[cal04]

2. The curfew isn't working.

Bombs and clashes as Iraq govt warns of "civil war"

A car bomb in a Shi'ite holy city and bloody battles around Sunni mosques in Baghdad that breached a second day's curfew on the capital heightened fears on Saturday that Iraq was heading for civil war. Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi called for calm and told a live televised news conference on state television: "If there is a civil war in this country it will never end."

Extending the curfew to Monday morning, Iraqi leaders are scrambling to break the round of tit-for-tat reprisals, sparked by a suspected al Qaeda bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine in Samarra on Wednesday. The gravest crisis since the U.S. invasion in 2003 threatens U.S. plans to withdraw its 136,000 troops.

The biggest political bloc from the once-dominant Sunni Muslim minority said it might end a boycott of U.S.-backed negotiations on forming a national unity government that Washington hopes can stifle sectarian strife that has killed more than 200 people in Baghdad in three days. But Iraq's most prominent Sunni cleric, blaming Shi'ite police for attacking his home, said live on pan-Arab television during the gunbattle: "This is civil war declared by one side."

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-25T124910Z_01_MAC231520_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml

[MrBenchley]

3. I often wonder

when we see the trigger happy post those idiotic "you gotta getta gun to show the right we mean business" threads on DU, whether this is the sort of societal ideal they envision.