In Iraq, Several Sunni Mosques Attacked

BAGHDAD — A handful of Sunni mosques were attacked or burned yesterday, but curfews and increased troop levels kept Iraq in relative calm a day after suspected Al Qaeda bombers toppled the towering minarets of a prized Shiite shrine.

At least four people were reported killed in apparent retaliatory attacks in Basra, and an American soldier said a dozen rockets or mortars rained down on Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone yesterday afternoon. At least one fell outside Iraq's Parliament, about 25 minutes before the U.S. State Department's no. 2 official was to visit a nearby American military building.

A senior American military official, who requested anonymity because the information had not been released, said there were casualties among non-Americans.

Wednesday 's attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra, which was blamed on Sunni extremists, stoked fears of a surge in violence between Muslim sects. A bombing at the same mosque complex in February 2006 that destroyed the shrine's famed golden dome unleashed a bloodbath of reprisals.