THE revenge attacks started within minutes of the devastating dawn blast that wrecked the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest Shia shrines in Iraq.

By the end of the day, as thousands of Iraqis spilt out on to the streets in protest and more than 90 mosques lay damaged or destroyed, Iraq’s political and religious leadership was struggling to avert a full-blown civil war. At least eighteen Sunnis, including three clerics, were reported murdered.

The reprisal attack on al-Quds Sunni mosque in western Baghdad was typical. Residents ran for cover as more than a dozen masked Shia gunmen raked the building with bullets. The firing halted as suddenly as it had begun. The men stepped back into their six saloons and pulled away slowly, singing and waving jubilant V-signs from the windows. They were ushered from the scene by soldiers from an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint , who cheered and waved.

Such scenes were repeated across the country as thousands of people, many calling for revenge, massed in cities throughout the south of Iraq demonstrating against the desecration of the Golden Mosque.

In the southern city of Basra, Shia militiamen stormed the Maakel prison and lynched at least eleven Sunni inmates, among them at least two Egyptians. According to British forces patrolling the city, the gunmen arrived in a fleet of cars and showed documents which claimed that they were from the Interior Ministry.

In Baghdad Iraqi troops and police sealed off several districts, Sunni gunmen set up checkpoints to defend against retaliatory attack and black-clad Shia militiamen touting rockets and assault rifles took to the streets demanding revenge. Leaders appealed for calm, but at least four Sunni mosques in the city were hit by rocket, gun and grenade attacks.

Coming when sectarian tensions were at breaking point, the attack in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, has succeeded in igniting Shia rage where thousands of deaths have failed. The golden 9th-century al-Askariya mosque in the town is the burial site of two imams related to the Prophet Muhammad; it is one of Iraq’s four holiest sites and sacred to millions of Shias throughout the world. Shortly before 6.30am yesterday a group of gunmen, some in uniform, some in black, entered, overpowered guards and planted two bombs. Just before 7am the top was blown off the dome.

Mouwafak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s National Security Adviser, quickly blamed zealots linked to the terror cells of al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunnah. He said the bombing, unprecedented in the three-year insurgency, was an effort “to pull Iraq towards civil war”.

President Talabani of Iraq condemned the assault and appealed for restraint, saying that it was designed to sabotage negotiations to form a government of national unity. “We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq’s unity,” he said. “We should all stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war.”

In Najaf, Iraq’s most revered Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, made a rare television appearance urging protest but forbidding his followers to attack Sunni mosques. He appealed for seven days of national mourning, a call that combined with the curdling tension to leave Baghdad’s streets shuttered and empty by dusk.

But in Baghdad, al-Kut, Najaf, Samarra, Diwaniyah, and al-Hillah the Shia fury had spilt on to the streets by afternoon.

“There are hundreds of armed people outside my office, they’ve closed the roads across Sadr city,” Hussein al-Shari’a, a Shia political official, told The Times. “The situation is critical. The Sadrists here say they have already attacked a Sunni mosque near by and that at least two of their men have been killed. Samarra is the straw that broke our bone. The red line has been crossed.”

Across the bridge from Sadr city sat a tempting target for further Shia vengeance: Adamiya, a Sunni quarter surrounding the Abu Hanifa mosque. Here, US troops allowed Sunnis to mount their own armed protection with civilians carrying guns clearly visible.

In al-Shola, western Baghdad, witnesses said that Shia militiamen fired grenades at al-Hamza mosque. A teacher said that her students were coralled by Shia gunmen into armed protest. “They walked into the classrooms, heavily armed, and said, ‘Why do you sit and study when our imams are attacked? Get your guns and get out on the streets.’ ”

THE HISTORY

• One of the four main sacred Shia shrines in Iraq, along with sites in Najaf, Kerbala and Baghdad district of Kadhimiya
  
  
• Contains tombs of two of the 12 revered Shia imams: 10th Imam Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868 AD, and his son, the 11th Imam Hasan al-Askari, who died in 874 AD
  
  
• Near the spot where the 12th Imam, Imam Mahdi, known as the hidden imam, disappeared. Shias say that he will return before the Day of Judgment to return justice to the world
  
  
• Built by Caliph al-Mutasim in 836 AD to replace Baghdad as capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, but abandoned in 892 AD by Caliph al-Mutamid
  
  
• The Golden Dome was completed in 1905 and covered by 72,000 golden pieces. At about 20 metres wide and with a circumference of 68 metres, it was one of the biggest domes in the Islamic world
  
  
  
  www.timesonline.co.uk/pictures
  Pictures of the damaged shrine

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