Suspected al Qaeda militants on Wednesday blew up the minarets of a revered Shia mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra, target of a 2006 bomb attack that unleashed a tidal wave of sectarian violence. Fearing renewed bloodshed, Iraq's government imposed an indefinite curfew in Baghdad as Shia and Sunni political and religious leaders called on their followers to remain calm.
A grim mood descended on the capital as people hurried home before the start of the curfew. The streets were largely empty apart from patrolling Iraqi police and soldiers.
Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders met the top US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and US ambassador Ryan Crocker, agreeing on political and military steps aimed at "promoting restraint", US officials said. US military spokesman Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner said Maliki had ordered the deployment of an extra Iraqi brigade to Samarra while investigators tried to establish how the bombers managed to stage an apparent repeat of the February 22, 2006 attack on the al-Askari mosque that collapsed its famed golden dome.
US BLAMES AL QAEDA: The US State Department said Washington was concerned about the potential affect of Wednesday's attack "among various groups within Iraq". In a joint statement, Petraeus and Crocker called on Iraqis to "reject this call to violence".
"This brutal action on one of Iraq's holiest shrines is a deliberate attempt by al Qaeda to sow dissent and inflame sectarian strife among the people of Iraq. It is an act of desperation," the statement said. In a televised address, Maliki also blamed al Qaeda for the attack and called on Iraqis to unite. He said he had ordered the arrest of the policemen who had been guarding the mosque and his office said he had visited the scene.
The attack comes at a critical time in Iraqi politics. Maliki's government is under growing pressure to move faster in passing key laws US officials hope will draw Sunni Arabs closer into the political process and undermine the insurgency.
But there has been almost no progress and there are signs a major US-Iraqi crackdown in Baghdad aimed at buying time for Maliki's government is running out of steam. The number of death squad killings has begun to rise in the city.
The country's top Shia religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged Shias not to carry out revenge attacks against Sunni Arabs. Iraq's Sunni vice-president, Tareq al-Hashemi, said Wednesday's attack was a "desperate attempt to attack the unity of the Iraqi people and bring back the black events that Iraq witnessed last year".
TOP QAEDA MILITANT KILLED: US forces have killed a top militant of al Qaeda in the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the military said on Wednesday. Kamal Jalil Bakr Uthman, also known as Sa'id Hamza, was the group's military 'emir' for Mosul and detained during an operation in August 2006 but later released in April 2007 by an Iraqi court, it said in a statement.
On Tuesday, he was killed when troops went to his home to arrest him again, the military said. "As they entered his residence, Uthman rushed into another room and reached under a mattress," the statement said adding that troops reacted and shot him dead. "The ground force later found a suicide vest under the mattress," according to the military.