In Iraq, Several Sunni Mosques Attacked
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
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.
