Photographs
showed that the dome had been destroyed and that the surrounding area had
been heavily damaged.
***In subsequent articles it was revealed that
the bombs had been placed in the mosque over a three-day period and while
destroying much of the building the charges had been laid in church a manner
as to not dusturb the graves of the 10th and 11th Iman burried in the building.
BAGHDAD,
Iraq (CNN) -- An explosion ripped through a Shiite holy site in Samarra
Wednesday, destroying the golden dome of the al Askariya mosque, a U.S.
military statement and a local security official said.
An official with the Salahuldin Joint
Coordination Center said a group of men dressed as Iraqi Police commandos
entered the shrine around 7 a.m. (11 p.m. ET Tuesday) and detonated explosives
under the dome, collapsing it and damaging the entire mosque.
The site is sacred to Shia, because they
believe Iman al Mehdi will appear at the mosque, bringing them salvation.
Al Mehdi is the 12th and final awaited Imam
in Shia Islam. He is the son of Iman Hasan al Askari, the 11th Iman, buried in
the shrine. His grandfather, the 10th Iman, is also buried there.
Al Mehdi is said to have disappeared in the
Eighth Century during the funeral of his father and is believed by Shia to
have been withdrawn by God from the eyes of the people. They are waiting for
him to reappear as their leader, believing the event will take place in Samarra.
This is the Mosque that the President of Iran hails.
This is the Mosque that Hidden Iman that is supposed to return as the Antichrist. The consequences of this bombing could be huge
with Iran – Iraq – America --and Israel, that could well be blamed for this
event.
Samarra is located in southern Salah ad
Din province, about 70 miles (110 km) northwest of Baghdad.
On Tuesday, a car bomb detonated in a
marketplace in the southern Baghdad suburb of Dora, killing 20 people and
wounding another 25, police said.
The Associated Press reported that the car
appeared to be detonated by remote control and was aimed at a police patrol but
missed its intended target.
The car bomb was parked near a police
checkpoint, and an Iraqi suspected of setting off the blast has been arrested,
AP reported.
The explosion left cars burning and nearby
stores ablaze, according to AP. Children screamed while women wailed "Our
children have died!" and "The terrorists, may God punish them!"
Witnesses told AP that at least four
passing cars caught fire and some motorists were killed or seriously wounded in
the blast. Ambulances hurried to the scene, while motorists helped ferry the
injured to hospitals, AP reported.
Earlier Tuesday, a roadside bombing killed
a policeman in central Baghdad and another wounded two civilians, Iraqi police
said.
The blasts took place as British Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw visited the region and a day after seven attacks killed 16
people and wounded 56.
Straw held talks Tuesday with Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani about formation of a new Iraqi government, a Talabani
spokesman told Reuters.
Tuesday's first Baghdad bombing took place
about 8 a.m. (12 a.m. ET) and targeted a police patrol, taking the life of an
officer, Iraqi Emergency Police said. No other details of the attack were
available.
The second bombing occurred in Tahrir
square as a U.S. convoy passed, according to police. The attack wounded two
civilians. No one in the American convoy was hurt.
Also Tuesday, Iraqi police found an
unidentified body in the capital with its hands tied behind its back and a
bullet hole through the head. A note on the body said, "this is a
terrorist who kills innocents."
A U.S. soldier was among those killed in
Monday's spate of seven bomb attacks, officials said.
The day's most deadly attack -- a suicide
bombing -- took the lives of 10 people and wounded eight others in Baghdad's
mostly Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Khadmiye, Iraqi Emergency Police said. No
other details were available.