"Rebuilding a Shia mosque in the heartland of the Sunni insurgency would have been unthinkable" less than a year ago, says Lt. Col. J. P. McGee, commander of the Second Battalion, 327th Infantry, based in Samarra since October 2007. For the 2007 bombing, see. Al-Rubaie said Iraqi security forces had yet to capture the mastermind of the mosque attack, Haitham al-Badri, an Iraqi and leader of one of Al Qaeda in Iraq's cells, who was later killed in an airstrike on August 2, 2007. Advertising Notice There were also increased power outages as the large number of people confined to their homes increased electrical usage, resulting in power for only four hours of the day. Angry crowds also gathered in Baghdad, while many in the Shia holy city of Najaf called for revenge. Attacks on Sunni mosques especially in eastern Baghdad started right away after the news of the bombing spread on the afternoon. American forces encountered insurgents transporting and unloading weapons using speedboats and opened fire, destroying the boats. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Al-Askari Shrine. [16] Al-Badri was killed in August 2007.[17]. [3] Abdul Sattar Abdul Jabbar, a prominent Sunni cleric, told Al Jazeera television that local Sunnis may have been provoked as he claimed "the new guards had arrived at the shrine shouting sectarian slogans". Sistani expanded his militia and stayed at the forefront of the movement by encouraging peaceful rallies. The endeavor, city officials and U.S. soldiers alike hope, will bring back hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims from Iran, the Gulf States and beyond; restore Samarra's economic fortunes; and narrow Iraq's sectarian rift. They drove off the guards and set fire to the building, causing partial damage. "But we were not ready then, and the Iraqi [insurgents] were not either. The city of Samarra in central Iraq had fallen under the control of insurgents shortly after insurgents had seized control of Fallujah and Ramadi. A month earlier, a suicide truck bomber had attacked police headquarters, killing the commander and 11 of his troops, and driving the rest of the force—700 men—out of the city. "[6] He then read a quote from a prayer of Abraham found in the Qur'an "God, make this country safe and send its people your blessed rewards. [21], Syed Ali Nasir Saeed Abaqati a leading Shia cleric from Lucknow, India held al-Qaeda responsible for destruction of the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, Iraq. Several men dressed in Iraqi Special Forces uniforms entered the mosque and set two bombs. I had been told that under intense pressure from the Iraqi government, the U.S. Army had dropped 200 Sunni fighters from its payroll in just the past month and would have to lay off another thousand in the months to come. "[4] Presidential spokesman Tony Snow said "there will be aggressive outreach on all sides" by American officials to try to head off any further violence. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim used the explosion in Samarra to bolster his own authority. [10], The dome had been repaired by April 2009 and the shrine reopened to visitors.[11]. Then, in December 2007, the Iraqi government and its U.S. allies began to take back the city. [25], Coordinates: 34°11′56″N 43°52′25″E / 34.19889°N 43.87361°E / 34.19889; 43.87361, This article is about the 2007 bombing. "[5] Sadr criticized the Iraqi government for failing to protect the site, and said the U.S. occupation is "the only enemy of Iraq" and "that's why everyone must demand its departure". [43] He hinted that religious militias could be given a bigger security role if the government was incapable of protecting holy shrines. For months afterward, "We searched for international experts to go there, but the reaction was, 'No way,'" Mohamed Djelid, director of Unesco in Iraq, told me. During the month of September, negotiations with local commanders produced a city council which was to govern the city. Sunnis retaliated by killing Shiites. The normal daily patrols of US coalition forces and Iraqi security forces were temporarily suspended in Baghdad during the few days following the bombing. Despite the Sunni boycott, President Jalal Talabani pressed ahead with a meeting[37] that he had called to avert a descent toward a civil war. Shiites believe that al-Mahdi will one day rise from his "crypt" below the mosque, ushering in man's redemption and the end of the world. All of the bodies had their hands bound together. [9] CNN reporter Jane Arraf entered the city with US troops and covered the battle live. The Great Mosque of Samarra was built in 848-852 AD on an open plan principle, it is the largest mosque of Islam (748 x 512 ft). ... After the crimes against the places of worship, including the blowing up of the mausoleum in Samarra and the attacks against the tombs of Salman the Persian and Imam Ali bin Mussa al-Rida, the tribes must take a stand and claim a role in the protection of these sites.". In preparation for an offensive to retake Fallujah, on 1 October, 5,000 American and Iraqi troops assaulted Samarra and secured the city after three days of fighting. I pass the ruins of police headquarters, blown up by an Al Qaeda in Iraq suicide truck bomber in May 2007, and enter a corridor lined by eight-foot-high slabs of concrete—"Texas barriers" or "T-walls," in U.S. military parlance. But stability, he said, depended on jobs for the Sons of Iraq, and "we don't trust the Iraqi government.". "[20], Thirty-seven bodies slain by sectarian violence were reported in Baghdad on the day of the lifting of the curfew.[20]. [20], The alleged mastermind of both the minaret bombings and the February 2006 blasts, Haitham al-Badri, was killed in August 2007 by a U.S. He called on Sunni groups such as the Association of Muslim Scholars to form a joint panel and ordered his militia to defend Shiite holy sites across Iraq. 17th Annual Photo Contest Finalists Announced. In 2006, the skyline was changed when a bombing destroyed the golden dome on the top of the ancient shrine. ... Members of the Iraqi security forces, which are dominated by Shiites, yelled threats at Samarra residents, blaming them for the destruction of the mosque and threatening revenge. Standing before the flag of Iraq he said "I call on all civilians and believers and clergy to talk to people about the necessity of self-control and wisdom to foil the scheme of those evil ones who want to make use of this crime for political reasons. Are you sure the minaret pictured is the famous spiral minaret in Samarra?? [3][6] These initiatives brought some measure of security to the city, however, this did not prevent the bombing of the Golden Mosque in February 2006. After the battle, American forces began a program to provide security, build up the local police forces, and spent tens of millions of dollars on public works projects and hospitals. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called the bombing a "criminal and sacrilegious act", urging Iraqis to show restraint and avoid retaliation. An assault by gunmen against the nearby al-Mustafa mosque also occurred early that day but they were repelled by Iraqi soldiers. A deal was signed last February, and 2,000 Sunni fighters—many of whom had spent years arming IEDs to kill American troops—were given one to three days of weapons training. The reign of al-Mutawakkil had a great effect on the appearance of the city, for he seemed to have been a lover of architecture, and the one responsible for building the great Mosque of Samarra. In congressional testimony, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said a civil war in Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East, pitting the region's Sunni and Shiite powers against one another. The trip was aborted, however, after word reached the team that an ambush was planned by Al Qaeda. The spiral minaret on top of one of the city's other holy sites, the Sunni Great Mosque of Samarra, was damaged in April 2003. "We had nine IEDs in a three-hour period on [one road through town]. ", "It was always going to be a very hard sell, but now it's an impossible argument; Shiites aren't going to give away any power at all at this point," he said, adding that "it's possible that there could be a hung parliament, the government would collapse, and you'd have to go to new elections. "We threw out Al Qaeda, but we are bringing in another Hezbollah," referring to the Lebanese Shiite guerrilla group funded by Iran. Definitely there is a sort of strategy in play, which is 'wait and see.' The agreement was made during a meeting between representatives of Shiite cleric Sadr, Shiite religious leader Jawad al-Khalisi and members of the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars at the Abu Hanifa Mosque, a Sunni place of worship. After the 2006 bombing more than 100,000 Bahrainis also demonstrated.

2010 Mitsubishi Galant Crank Sensor Location, Josh Scott Band, How To Get Rid Of Evening Primrose, Types Of Man-made Patterns, Empire Of Cotton Sven Beckert, Walnut High School Event, Cruise Ship Icon Png, Heart Necklace With Birthstones, Prayer For Strength Bible Verse, Navien Distributors Canada, Audi A4 2019 Second Hand, Vizio Voice Remote, View As Specific Person Facebook 2020, Where Can I Volunteer Near Me, Bootstrap 4 Accordion With Arrow Example, Seville 6 Drawer, Telling Time In Arabic Quiz, House For Sale In Greece, Ny, Types Of Layering Pdf, Submersible Pumps Australia, Bumps On Tomato Stem, Contoh Fundamentalisme Agama Brainly, Oppo Find X2 Pro Automobili Lamborghini Edition Price, Verbs To Describe Sea, National Central University World Ranking,