Blast Rocks Shiite Shrine in Samarra

Iraqis inspect the damage inside a Shrine in Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006. A large explosion Wednesday heavily damaged the golden dome of one of Iraq's most famous Shiite religious shrines, sending protesters pouring into the streets. It was the third major attack against Shiite targets in as many days. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

This is also from The Washington Post:

BAGHDAD, Feb. 22 -- One of the most revered shrines in Shiite Islam was bombed early Wednesday morning north of Baghdad, causing the collapse of its dome, police and eyewitnesses said. There was no immediate estimate of casualties in the latest in a series of sectarian attacks in the country.

The attack on the Askariya shrine, also known as the Golden Mosque, in the city of Samarra sparked immediate and widespread protests among Shiites across Iraq and reports of reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques. The blast appeared designed to further inflame sectarian tension between Iraq's Shiite majority and the Sunni Arab population from whose ranks the bulk of the country's insurgency is drawn.

"The main aim of these terrorist groups is to drag Iraq into a civil war," said Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, in an interview on al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based Arabic news channel.

Thousands of Shiite militia fighters -- many armed with pistols, automatic rifles and grenade launchers -- took to the streets of cities across Iraq after the bombing, even as Shiite political and religious leaders called for peaceful demonstrations and restraint.

In Baghdad, Shiite militia fighters converged upon at least one Sunni Arab mosque and the headquarters of the Sunni-led Iraqi Islamic Party, witnesses said. Gunfire broke out at both sites, sending families in the neighborhood diving to the floors of their homes to escape bullets. U.S. military helicopters backed Iraqi security forces as they tried to get the Shiite militia fighters there to withdraw.

Gunfire and bombings were reported at other Sunni mosques and political headquarters in Samarra, Basrah and elsewhere.

The shrine in Samarra, a predominantly Sunni Arab city 65 miles north of Baghdad, contains the remains of two of Shiite Islam's most prominent imams. The bomb is believed to have been planted a day earlier, said Capt. Basheer Qadoori of the city's police force.

Iraq is in a state of civil, ethnic, and religious war between the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds. The only reason that Iraq has not broken out completely in fighting is that the U.S. still occupies the country, and the civil strife is divided between the American troops and the different religious factions. Pull the Americans out of Iraq, and the civil war would break out completely. Iraq is made up of three different countries, comprised of three different ethnic and religious groups. And all three groups are fighting each other to gain access to territory, oil reserves, weapons, and influence within their respected spheres of influence--once the U.S. decides to pull out of Iraq. And I haven't even gotten into the Iranian connection regarding this issue--that's a whole new can of worms. This attack is just another example of the low-simmering civil war that bubbles underneath the American occupation.

I don't know if there is any resolution to this simmering crisis.