Iraqi President: Danger Of Civil War
Shiite Leaders Appeal For Calm After Mosque Bombing
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Play CBS Video Video Day Of Crisis In Iraq At least three bombs went off inside a Shiite mosque in Samara that is one of Iraq's holiest shrines. The incident triggered more than 100 attacks on rival Sunni mosques. Kimberly Dozier reports.
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Video What's To Come? CBS News Middle East Consultant Fouad Ajami examines what could result from the bombing of a popular Shiite shrine in Iraq.
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Video Civil War In Iraq? Bob Schieffer sat down with Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor of Peace at the University of Maryland. They discussed whether Wednesday's attack at on Shiite mosque will instigate civil war.
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At left, the Shiite shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra, Feb. 2, 2004. At right, the shrine after the blast, Feb. 22, 2006. (AP)
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The 101-year-old golden dome of the Askariya shrine (above) is mostly a memory following a Feb. 22, 2006, explosion. (AP)
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Shiites angered over the destruction of a famed golden dome shrine in Samarra demonstrate at the scene of the explosion, Feb. 22, 2006. (AP)
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Residents react at a damaged shrine following an explosion in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006. (AP)
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Shiite Muslims pilgrims visit a Shiite Muslim shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra Monday, Feb. 2, 2004. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
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With the gleaming dome of the 1,200-year-old Askariya shrine reduced to rubble, leaders on both sides called for calm and many Shiites lashed out at the United States as partly to blame.
But the string of back-and-forth attacks seemed to push Iraq closer to all-out civil war than at any point in the three years since the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
"We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," said President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. "We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war."
CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier said that for Shiite Muslims, who make up two-thirds of Iraq, the attack is a declaration of war on their entire way of life.
The attack "could do more to drive the country toward civil war than all the suicide bombings against the Shiite community combined," Dozier reports.
"I think the violence will continue," CBS News Middle East Consultant Fouad Ajami said. "Alas we have learned not to believe that deliverance is around the corner. We are at the end of year three of this war and every hope that the violence has subside, has been betrayed."
In other recent developments:
President Bush pledged American help to restore the mosque after the bombing north of Baghdad, which dealt a severe blow to U.S. efforts to keep Iraq from falling deeper into sectarian violence.
"The terrorists in Iraq have again proven that they are enemies of all faiths and of all humanity," Bush said. "The world must stand united against them, and steadfast behind the people of Iraq."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair also condemned the bombing and pledged funds toward the shrine's reconstruction.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, called the attack a deliberate attempt to foment sectarian strife and warned it was a "critical moment for Iraq."
No one was reported injured in the bombing of the shrine in Samarra.
But at least 18 people, including three Sunni clerics, were killed in the reprisal attacks that followed, mainly in Baghdad and predominantly Shiite provinces to the south, according to the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni political group.
Major Sunni groups joined in condemning the attack, and a leading Sunni politician, Tariq al-Hashimi, urged clerics and politicians to calm the situation "before it spins out of control."
©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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