Terrorists Destroy Golden Mosque

The bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, left its famous golden dome in ruins set off sectarian fury across Iraq as mobs took revenge setting fire to dozens of Sunni mosques:

The attack in Samarra began at 7 a.m., when a group of a dozen men dressed in paramilitary uniforms entered the shrine and handcuffed four guards who were sleeping in a back room, said a spokesman for the provincial governor's office. The attackers then placed a bomb in the dome and detonated it, collapsing most of the dome and heavily damaging an adjoining wall.

Iraqi officials quickly pointed a finger at al-Qaeda which has been doing its best to bring about a civil war between Iraq's Shiites and Sunnis.

According to the Times of London, the al-Askariya shrine is, one of the largest archaeological sites in the world. It was built in 944 to house the tombs of two ninth century imams, direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad:

Ali al-Hadi, the tenth imam who died in 868 and his son Hassan al-Askari who died in 874, were buried at the end of the turbulent period during which Samarra was built as the new capital of the Abbasid empire, briefly taking over from Baghdad, then the largest city in the world.

But the continued and intense religious importance of the site is connected to the 12th and final imam, the so-called "Hidden Imam" who Shias believe went into hiding in 878 under the al-Askariya shrine to prepare for his eventual return among men.

According to Shia tradition, the Mahdi will reappear one day to punish the sinful and "separate truth from falsehood". For many years, a saddled horse and soldiers would be brought to the shrine in Samarra every day to be ready for his return, a ritual that was repeated in Hilla, about 100 miles to the south, where it was also thought that Mahdi might reappear.

"It's one of the foremost important shrines in Iraq," said Alastair Northedge, a Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the Sorbonne in Paris who has just completed an archaeological survey of Samarra.

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"The shrine is central for the Shia. This is not just a major cathedral, this is more than that, this is one of the holiest shrines."

The Golden dome that was destroyed today was added in 1905. It was covered in 72,000 gold pieces and surrounded by walls of light blue tiles, the shrine attracts thousands of Shia pilgrims from across the world.

As the initial reports of sectarian violence indicate, this terrorist attack may be the most successful of al-Qaeda's continuing efforts to cause a civil war in Iraq.