Iraqis start reconstruction of Samarra mosque
Iraqi and UN officials have toured a bomb-damaged Shiite shrine in the northern Iraq as workers took the first steps in a long-delayed reconstruction nearly two years after the attack on the famed golden dome sparked a vicious cycle of sectarian violence.
Workers in blue jumpsuits and orange helmets yesterday picked through mounds of rubble spilling out from the mosque in Samarra, about 95 kilometres north of Baghdad, which became a rallying point for Shiite rage after the 22nd Feb, 2006 blast blamed on al-Qaida in Iraq.
Relentless bloodletting between Shiite and Sunni extremists claimed tens of thousands of lives and lurched Iraq dangerously close to civil war. A second bomb attack this year on 13th June toppled the surviving twin minarets, prompting Shiite clerics to step up calls for the reconstruction of the Askariya shrine. The complex contains the tombs of two ninth century imams who were descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and Shiites consider them to be among his successors. An envoy for Iraq's Shiite-led government, Haq al-Hakim, described the USD 16 million rebuilding effort as a symbol of national unity at a time when violence is decreasing across most of Iraq. But the morgue count yesterday showed how quickly bloodshed can return. Iraqi police reported at least 30 people killed or found dead around the country, including eight beheaded bodies found in the volatile Diyala province northeast of the capital. It was one of the highest daily tolls in weeks
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