Civil War!!!


Mosque Attack Pushes Iraq Toward Civil War

By ZIAD KHALAF, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 22, 6:38 PM ET

SAMARRA, Iraq - Insurgents posing as police destroyed the golden dome of one of
Iraq's holiest Shiite shrines Wednesday, setting off an unprecendented spasm of sectarian violence. Angry crowds thronged the streets, militiamen attacked Sunni mosques, and at least 19 people were killed.


With the gleaming dome of the 1,200-year-old Askariya shrine reduced to rubble, some Shiites lashed out at the United States as partly to blame.

The violence — many of the 90 attacks on Sunni mosques were carried out by Shiite militias — seemed to push Iraq closer to all-out civil war than at any point in the three years since the U.S.-led overthrow of
Saddam Hussein.

Many leaders called for calm. "We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," said President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. "We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war."

President Bush pledged American help to restore the mosque after the bombing north of Baghdad, which dealt a severe blow to U.S. efforts to keep Iraq from falling deeper into sectarian violence.

"The terrorists in Iraq have again proven that they are enemies of all faiths and of all humanity," Bush said. "The world must stand united against them, and steadfast behind the people of Iraq."

British Prime Minister
Tony Blair also condemned the bombing and pledged funds toward the shrine's reconstruction.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, called the attack a deliberate attempt to foment sectarian strife and warned it was a "critical moment for Iraq."

No one was reported injured in the bombing of the shrine in Samarra.

But at least 19 people, including three Sunni clerics, were killed in the reprisal attacks that followed, mainly in Baghdad and predominantly Shiite provinces to the south, according to the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni political group.

Many of the attacks appeared to have been carried out by Shiite militias that the United States wants to see disbanded.

In predominantly Shiite Basra, police said militiamen broke into a prison, hauled out 12 inmates, including two Egyptians, two Tunisians, a Libyan, a Saudi and a Turk, and shot them dead in reprisal for the shrine attack.

Major Sunni groups joined in condemning the attack, and a leading Sunni politician, Tariq al-Hashimi, urged clerics and politicians to calm the situation "before it spins out of control."

The country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, sent instructions to his followers forbidding attacks on Sunni mosques, and called for seven days of mourning.

But he hinted, as did Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, that religious militias could be given a bigger security role if the government cannot protecting holy shrines — an ominous sign of the Shiite reaction ahead.

Both Sunnis and the United States fear the rise of such militias, which the disaffected minority views as little more than death squads. American commanders believe they undercut efforts to create a professional Iraqi army and police force — a key step toward the eventual drawdown of U.S. forces.

Some Shiite political leaders already were angry with the United States because it has urged them to form a government in which nonsectarian figures control the army and police. Khalilzad warned this week — in a statement clearly aimed at Shiite hard-liners — that America would not continue to support institutions run by sectarian groups with links to armed militias.

One top Shiite political leader accused Khalilzad of sharing blame for the attack on the shrine in Samarra.

"These statements ... gave green lights to terrorist groups. And, therefore, he shares in part of the responsibility," said Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the former commander of its militia.

The interior minister, who controls the security forces that Sunnis accuse of widepsread abuses, is a member of al-Hakim's party.

The new tensions came as Iraq's various factions have been struggling to assemble a government after the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

The Shiite fury sparked by Wednesday's bombings — the third major attack against Shiite targets in as many days — raised the likelihood that Shiite religious parties will reject U.S. demands to curb militias.

The Askariya shrine, also known as the Golden Mosque, contains the tombs of two revered Shiite imams, who are considered by Shiites to be among the successors of the Prophet Muhammad.

No group claimed responsibility for the 6:55 a.m. assault on the shrine in Samarra, a mostly Sunni Arab city 60 miles north of Baghdad, carried out by four insurgents disguised as police. But suspicion fell on Sunni extremist groups.

The top of the dome, which was completed in 1905, collapsed into a crumbly mess, leaving just traces of gold showing through the rubble. Part of the shrine's tiled northern wall also was damaged.

Thousands of demonstrators crowded near the wrecked shrine, and Iraqis picked through the debris, pulling out artifacts and copies of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, which they waved, along with Iraqi flags.

"This criminal act aims at igniting civil strife," said Mahmoud al-Samarie, a 28-year-old builder. "We demand an investigation so that the criminals who did this be punished. If the government fails to do so, then we will take up arms and chase the people behind this attack."

U.S. and Iraqi forces surrounded the Samarra shrine and searched nearby houses. About 500 soldiers were sent to Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad to prevent clashes.

On Al-Jazeera television, Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi pledged that the violence would not discourage Sunnis from working to form a new government and claimed the Samarra attack was not planned by Sunni insurgents but "a foreign hand aiming to create differences among Iraqis."

National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said 10 people were detained for questioning about the bombing. The Interior Ministry put the number at nine and said they included five guards.

In the hours after the attack, more than 90 Sunni mosques were attacked with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, burned or taken over by Shiites, the Iraqi Islamic Party said.

Large protests erupted in Shiite parts of Baghdad and in cities throughout the Shiite heartland to the south. In Basra, Shiite militants traded rifle and rocket-propelled grenade fire with guards at the office of the Iraqi Islamic Party. Smoke billowed from the building.

Shiite protesters later set fire to a Sunni shrine containing the seventh century tomb of Talha bin Obeid-Allah, a companion of Muhammad, on the outskirts of Basra.

Protesters in Najaf, Kut and Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City also marched through the streets by the thousands, many shouting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans and burning those nations' flags.

Tradition says the Askariya shrine, which draws Shiite pilgrims from throughout the Islamic world, is near the place where the last of the 12 Shiite imams, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared. Al-Mahdi was the son and grandson of the two imams buried in the Askariya shrine. Shiites believe he is still alive and will return to restore justice to humanity.

Muslim Vs Muslim? What genius thought it would be smart to do a takeover on a mosque? Sounds like Mooch and Norv turner have been hired by the insurgents for gameplanning. [smilie=anxious.gif]

I do have a minor conspiracy thought on this. But nothing i need bring up until i get more info.

FUCK IRAQ.

SAVE OUR ZOO.

Muslim vs. Muslim is very real. Even if they took over Israel and every Jew moved out of there, it would still be an area of extreme violence because different branches of Islam will try to get control of the area. This situation is sad.

Gunmen Kill 47 Iraqi Factory Workers

2 hours, 41 minutes ago

BAQOUBA, Iraq - Gunmen pulled factory workers off buses northeast of Baghdad and killed 47 of them, a provincial council member said.

The victims were traveling in three buses when they were stopped at a checkpoint in the Nahrawan area, about 12 miles south of Baqouba, said Dhari Thuban, a member of the Diyala Provincial Council. The buses were burned and their passengers killed, he said.

The motive for the killing was not immediately clear.

Residents told police that the bullet-riddled bodies were found around midday behind a brick factory, the Interior Ministry said.

The victims, who ranged in age between about 20 and 50, were dressed in civilian clothes and their deaths appeared recent, the ministry's Maj. Falah al-Mohamadawi told the Associated Press.

Thuban said the victims were brick factory workers, but al-Mohamadawi said no identification documents were found on them

Good. Anyone got popcorn?

Anyone else think that the US will let this continue as long as possible until they've weakened each other enough to the point that the US can move into Iraq and turn it into another Puerto Rico?

Good. Anyone got popcorn?

47 regular Joes murdered on their way to work, good? That's why your ass is at Riverside.

I was being sarcastic, dick lick.


And what does that have to do with where I go to school? Explane. But use small words, ok? I might not understand other wise. I'm too stupid.

LOL@Riverside.

I read 100 where killed today by gunmen.

Iraq Implements Curfew to Stem Violence

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 29 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed dozens of civilians Thursday and dumped their bodies in a ditch, as the government ordered a tough daytime curfew of Baghdad and three provinces to stem the sectarian violence that has left at least 114 dead since the bombing of a Shiite shrine.

Seven U.S. soldiers died in a pair of roadside bombings north of the capital, and American military units in the Baghdad area were told to halt all but essential travel to avoid getting caught up in demonstrations or roadblocks.

As the country careened to the brink of civil war, Iraqi state television announced an unusual daytime curfew, ordering people off the streets Friday in Baghdad and the nearby flashpoint provinces of Diyala, Babil and Salaheddin, where the shrine bombing took place.

Such a sweeping daytime curfew indicated the depth of fear within the government that the crisis could touch off a Sunni-Shiite civil war. "This is the first time that I have heard politicians say they are worried about the outbreak of civil war," Kurdish elder statesman Mahmoud Othman told The Associated Press.

The biggest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament announced it was pulling out of talks on a new government until the national leadership apologizes for damage to Sunni mosques from reprisal attacks.

"It is illogical to negotiate with parties that are trying to damage the political process," said Tariq al-Hashimi, a leader of the Iraqi Accordance Front.

Most of the bloodshed has been concentrated in the capital, its surrounding provinces and the province of Basra, 340 miles to the southeast.

Among the victims was Atwar Bahjat, a widely known Sunni correspondent for the Arab satellite television station Al-Arabiya.

Gunmen in a pickup truck shouting "We want the correspondent!" killed Bajhat along with her cameraman and engineer while they were interviewing Iraqis about Wednesday's destruction of the famed golden dome of the Shiite shrine Askariya in her hometown of Samarra.

Shiite and Sunni leaders again appealed for calm Thursday following the wave of attacks on Sunni mosques, and the number of violent incidents appeared to decline after the government extended the curfew.

Iraqi television said the curfew would extend until 4 p.m. Friday, preventing people from attending the week's most important Muslim prayer service. Officials feared mosques could be both a target for attacks and a venue for stirring sectarian feelings.

President Bush said he appreciated the appeals for calm, and called the shrine bombing "an evil act" aimed at creating strife.

A Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said discussions were under way to rebuild the shrine as quickly as possible because the shattered structure would serve as a "lasting provocation" until it was reconstructed. Italy announced Thursday it was offering to rebuild the dome to help battle "fanaticism."

Despite strident comments from various Iraqi leaders, U.S. officials said they believed mainstream politicians understood the grave danger facing the country and would try to prevent civil war.

"We're not seeing civil war igniting in
Iraq," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a spokesman for the U.S. command, told reporters.

Nevertheless, sectarian passions were running high.

A Shiite cleric was shot dead Thursday night in Tuz Khormato, a mostly Kurdish city 130 miles north of Baghdad, and another Sunni preacher was killed the mostly Shiite city of Hillah 60 miles south of the capital.

Two Sunni mosques were burned Thursday in Baghdad and another in Mussayib to the south, police said. A Sunni was killed when gunmen fired on a mosque in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Dozens of bodies were found Thursday dumped at sites in Baghdad and the Shiite heartland in southern Iraq, many of them with their hands bound and shot execution-style. They were believed to have been killed Wednesday night.

Although the violence appeared to be waning Thursday, the brutality did not.

The bodies of the 47 civilians, mostly men between ages 20 and 50, were found early Thursday in a ditch near Baqouba. Police said the victims — both Sunnis and Shiites — had apparently been stopped by gunmen, hauled from their cars and shot.

Fighting erupted in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, between Sunni gunmen and militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr who were guarding a mosque. Two civilians were killed and five militiamen were wounded, police Capt. Rashid al-Samaraie said.

Workers at two U.S.-funded water treatment projects in Baghdad were told to stay home Thursday to avoid trouble. American officials also ordered a lockdown in some locations within the Green Zone, home of U.S. and Iraqi government offices, after two or three mortar shells exploded, causing no casualties.

The bullet-riddled bodies of the Al-Arabiya correspondent and her two colleagues from the Wassan media company were found Thursday a few miles outside Samarra. All three were Sunni Arabs. It was unclear why they were targeted, although the station has a reputation as critical of the insurgency.

Eight Iraqi soldiers and eight civilians were killed Thursday when a bomb hidden in a soup vendor's cart detonated in Baqouba, police said. At least 20 people were wounded in the blast. In Julula, 75 miles northeast of Baghdad, a parked car exploded and killed three civilians and injured three others, police said.

Following the sectarian attacks, Shiite and Sunni leaders blamed each other for the violence, with each side portraying itself as the victim.

The Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars said at least 168 Sunni mosques had been attacked, 10 imams killed and 15 abducted since the shrine attack. The Interior Ministry said it could only confirm figures for Baghdad, where it had reports of 19 mosques attacked, one cleric killed and one abducted.

Abdul-Salam al-Kubaisi, a spokesman for the Sunni association, blamed the violence on the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and other Shiite religious leaders who called for demonstrations against the shrine attack.

Al-Sadr, the Shiite radical, told Al-Jazeera television from
Iran that Sunnis should join Shiites in pledging not to kill fellow Muslims to distance themselves from "takfiris" — Sunni extremists who target Shiites.

Al-Kubaisi said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad enflamed the situation when he warned at a press conference Monday that the United States would not continue to support institutions run by sectarian groups with links to armed militias. Shiites control the Interior Ministry, which Sunnis claim operates death squads targeting them.

Shiite party leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim said Khalilzad bore some responsibility for the Samarra attack because of this warning, and al-Kubaisi said "without doubt," the ambassador's comments "mobilized all the Shiites" and "made them ready to go down to the street at any moment."

The United States considers Sunni participation in a new government vital to calming the Sunni-led insurgency so that the 138,000 U.S. troops can begin to go home this year.

Sunni leaders also boycotted a reconciliation meeting with Shiites and Kurds called by President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.

After the meeting, Talabani told reporters that the participants agreed the best way to respond to Wednesday's attack was to form a unity government "whose top job should be getting the security situation under control and fighting terrorism."

"If the fire of internal strife breaks out, God forbid," Talabani said, "it will harm everyone."

The premise behind the term Jihad though it has been distorted over time is the cleanzing of Islam and purifying oneself from outside influence.

Therefore if a Muslim refuses to reject all things not fundamental, they are as much part of the problem as those who are regarded as a negative influence.

Sunni's in general are not fundamentalists, they do not feel the wester world is the problem , they also believe that muslim leadership of the umma should go to the best leader. Shi'ites on the otherhand are strict fundamentalists and believe that the role of leadership should only be given to descendants of Mohammed.

Sunnis believe also that all Muslims are equal and will be judged as such. Shi'ites feel that they are the only true Muslims and feel that they must appease god in order to be judged in the same ways as those who are decendants of Mohammed.

So Shi'ites extremists feel they are doing God's work even if it means killing Muslism they judge to be inferior or heretics.

Terrorist start to lose ground when fringe supporters no longer relate to the cause. By killing fellow Muslims in place of westerners could shift the war on terror.

this is a bad situation

I just wish there was a way to find out what it would be like over there if we never touched Iraq? Would the Palestinians have elected Hamas to be their leaders? Would America have experienced another terrorist attack? Would we have caught Bin Laden?

I just wish there was a way to find out what it would be like over there if we never touched Iraq? Would the Palestinians have elected Hamas to be their leaders? Would America have experienced another terrorist attack? Would we have caught Bin Laden?

Please Skelly. I understand these are challenging times for both the US and the Middle East but lets not act like these countries were well on their way to civility before we came along. Saddam would of kept persuing WMD's and murdering and executing hundreds if not tousands more of his countryman. The intifada against the Jews was in full force just a few years back, at least there not blowing up buses in israel as of late.

The current so called civil war is not as bad as the media reports it to be anyways. There were thousands and thousands demonstrating against Al-Qaeda for the Mosque bombing. This is like this stupid port thing that happening. The media has everyone acting like this is some big freaking deal or something and because nobody is the wiser they buy into it.

I can't stand the lethal combination of the bias media and American politics. That goes for both sides. It's non stop demogoging and partisanship with a lot of sensationalism.

I just wish there was a way to find out what it would be like over there if we never touched Iraq? Would the Palestinians have elected Hamas to be their leaders? Would America have experienced another terrorist attack? Would we have caught Bin Laden?

We wouldn't have wasted $300 billion and a couple thousand american lives, other than that things would be pretty much the same.

I just wish there was a way to find out what it would be like over there if we never touched Iraq? Would the Palestinians have elected Hamas to be their leaders? Would America have experienced another terrorist attack? Would we have caught Bin Laden?

Please Skelly. I understand these are challenging times for both the US and the Middle East but lets not act like these countries were well on their way to civility before we came along. Saddam would of kept persuing WMD's and murdering and executing hundreds if not tousands more of his countryman. The intifada against the Jews was in full force just a few years back, at least there not blowing up buses in israel as of late.

The current so called civil war is not as bad as the media reports it to be anyways. There were thousands and thousands demonstrating against Al-Qaeda for the Mosque bombing. This is like this stupid port thing that happening. The media has everyone acting like this is some big freaking deal or something and because nobody is the wiser they buy into it.

I can't stand the lethal combination of the bias media and American politics. That goes for both sides. It's non stop demogoging and partisanship with a lot of sensationalism.

No offense but you're a tool.

Please Skelly. I understand these are challenging times for both the US and the Middle East but lets not act like these countries were well on their way to civility before we came along. Saddam would of kept persuing WMD's and murdering and executing hundreds if not tousands more of his countryman. The intifada against the Jews was in full force just a few years back, at least there not blowing up buses in israel as of late.

The current so called civil war is not as bad as the media reports it to be anyways. There were thousands and thousands demonstrating against Al-Qaeda for the Mosque bombing. This is like this stupid port thing that happening. The media has everyone acting like this is some big freaking deal or something and because nobody is the wiser they buy into it.

I can't stand the lethal combination of the bias media and American politics. That goes for both sides. It's non stop demogoging and partisanship with a lot of sensationalism.

Don't get me wrong Gecko I'm not presuming anything. We'll never know for complete sure if the war was right or not. There would probably be something really unexpected in there. I'm just curious what it would be.

I just wish there was a way to find out what it would be like over there if we never touched Iraq? Would the Palestinians have elected Hamas to be their leaders? Would America have experienced another terrorist attack? Would we have caught Bin Laden?
I put that one in for you Gecko.