Iraq Watch: February 23, 2006

Sectarian Attacks Intensify Following Mosque Bombing

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Reprisal attacks stemming from yesterday's bombing of the sacred Askariya shrine in Samarra intensified on Thursday leaving over 110 Iraqis dead.

Enraged Iraqi Shiites have taken to the streets in droves attacking at least 168 Sunni mosques throughout the country. According to the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) some 10 Sunni clerics have been assassinated and another 15 abducted since yesterday's blast at the ancient "Golden Mosque."

In Nahrawan, located in the religiously-mixed Diyala province, at least 47 executed bodies were found in a ditch after apparently being stopped by militants who had set up an impromptu roadblock in an industrial area of the city, northeast of the capital.

An additional 23 bodies were found scattered around six different locations in the capital city of Baghdad.

Also, in Baqouba, a bomb aimed at an Iraqi army patrol killed at least 16 people, including eight soldiers. 20 Iraqis were reported wounded in the early-afternoon blast. The militant group al-Qaida in Iraq, now incorporated in the recently created Mujahideen Shura Council, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In an effort to defuse the growing animosity between the two Muslim sects, Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani held an emergency meeting Thursday in Baghdad.

The country's leading Sunni political group, however, refused to attend in protest over the rash of reprisal attacks targeting Sunnis. The Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF), which garnered 44 seats in Iraq's December parliamentary elections, announced that it would cease all talks with Shiite and Kurdish groups until an apology is received. Leading Sunni politician Dr. Salman al-Jumaili stated: "We want a clear condemnation from the government which didn't do enough yesterday to curb those angry mobs." Dr. al-Jumaili went on further saying "There was even a kind of cooperation with the government security forces in some places in attacking the Sunni mosques."

Maverick Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on members of his militia, the Mahdi army, to protect Shiite institutions across the country. "Brothers in the Mahdi Army must protect all Shiite shrines and mosques, especially in Samarra," al-Sadr said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of seven U.S. service members on Thursday. Four U.S. soldiers were killed yesterday after their vehicle was struck by an IED near Hawijah while three soldiers, assigned to Task Force Band of Brothers, died in a separate roadside bomb attack Wednesday northeast of Balad.

Elsewhere, the bodies of three Iraqi journalists working for the Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya were found dumped six miles northeast of Samarra. The three, which included the well-known female correspondent Atwar Bahjat, were reporting on the mosque bombing when they were abducted.