Shrine bombing rocks Iraq
By Ziad Khalaf
ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 23, 2006

SAMARRA, Iraq -- Terrorists detonated bombs inside one of Iraq's holiest Shi'ite shrines yesterday, destroying its golden dome and triggering more than 90 reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques. The president warned that extremists were pushing the country toward civil war.

With the gleaming dome of the 1,200-year-old Askariya "Golden" Mosque reduced to rubble, leaders on both sides called for calm. Many Shi'ites said the United States was partly to blame.

The unprecedented spasm of sectarian violence 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 dictator Saddam Hussein.
The rest

Iranian president says US, Israel attacked shrine
By ORLY HALPERN AND AP

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the United States and Israel on Thursday for the blowing up of a Shi'ite shrine's golden dome in Iraq, saying it was the work of "defeated Zionists and occupiers."

Speaking to a crowd of thousands on tour of southwestern Iran, the president referred to the destruction of the Askariya mosque dome in Samarra on Wednesday, which the Iraqi government has blamed on insurgents.

"They invade the shrine and bomb there because they oppose God and justice," Ahmadinejad said, referring to the US-led multinational force in Iraq. Story


Iraqi Gunmen Kill 47 People in Assault on Workers
Thursday, February 23, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Gunmen shot dead 47 civilians and left their bodies in a ditch near Baghdad Thursday as militia battles and sectarian reprisals followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine. Sunni Arabs suspended their participation in talks on a new government. The rest