A wave of revenge attacks on Sunni mosques hit Baghdad last night in retaliation for a devastating attack on a revered Shia shrine in Samarra, north of the capital.

The attacks came after suspected al-Qaeda saboteurs blew up the two minarets of the al-Askariya mosque in the largely Sunni city of Samarra, in a provocative attack that destroyed the slender, gold-covered towers. The same holy site was bombed 15 months ago, igniting the bloody sectarian violence that has since claimed thousands of victims.

Political and religious leaders condemned the latest blasts yesterday and Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, deployed thousands of troops and imposed a curfew in Baghdad and Samarra to limit the movement of the militias and death squads, in a desperate attempt to contain the violence.

He also called on the US military to send reinforcements to Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, and ordered Iraqi security forces to increase protection at religious sites around the country.

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We closed the street and we expect to be attacked. Maybe they will hit the local Sunni mosque.

Deborah Haynes in Baghdad

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Addressing the nation on television, Mr al-Maliki said: “I urge everybody not to give a chance to terrorists and stand united in confronting those who ignite sectarian passions.”

All policemen on duty at the al-Askariya mosque were arrested for questioning as part of the investigation into the explosions, which took place at 9am in spite of tight security at the shrine.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most senior Shia religious leader, urged his followers to resist the temptation to retaliate against Sunni Arabs. The political bloc of Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric, also called on its supporters to remain calm. At the same time, the Shia Sadrists suspended their participation in parliament in protest at the attacks.

Despite the appeals for calm, three mosques in the town of Iskandiriyah, south of Baghdad, were bombed and another Sunni mosque in the capital’s Bayaa neighbourhood was set on fire.

Mortars were also aimed at a Sunni mosque in Ghazaliyah, a mixed Sunni-Shia neighbourhood in north Baghdad, a resident toldThe Times. The attack was followed by clashes between gunmen and the guards inside the mosque. After 45 minutes, the Iraqi Army and National Guard arrived at the scene to secure the area, he said.

The curfew meant that Baghdad’s roads were clear, but people living in mixed neighbourhoods, where sectarian killing has been most prevalent, braced themselves for a night of violence.

“We are preparing for any attack by the Mahdi Army,” said Shiras Assem, 34, a shopkeeper in Saydeia, west Baghdad, referring to the group loyal to Hojatoleslam al-Sadr.

“We closed the street and we expect to be attacked,” he said. “Maybe they will hit the local Sunni mosque. We have set up a night watch until the morning. We will not sleep tonight.”

Anxious to defuse the situation, the United States blamed al-Qaeda and said that the bombing was “an act of desperation by an increasingly beleaguered enemy”.

“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,” said Ryan Crocker, the US Ambassador to Iraq, and General David Petraeus, the head of US forces in Iraq.

Al-Qaeda has sought to provoke a civil war between Iraq’s Shia majority and Sunni minority in the vacuum of insecurity left by the US-led invasion.

It was blamed for the first bombing of the al-Askariya mosque last year that inspired large-scale sectarian killings. The Sunni terrorist group is also behind countless attacks that have killed tens of thousands.

In recent months, however, other Sunni militias, sick of the daily chaos, have joined with Iraqi and US forces to fight al-Qaeda, hoping to bring order to Baghdad.

The United States has also deployed more than 20,000 extra troops in and around Baghdad in an attempt to quell the violence and enable Mr al-Maliki’s Government to make progress on a series of political goals such as national reconciliation and an agreement on a new oil law.

Foad Kazem al-Moqdadi, a Sunni academic, said that Iraqis knew the perpetrators of yesterday’s attack were solely intent on stoking sectarian warfare and would resist rising to the bait.

“We are very strong now more than the last time,” he said. “I have heard that militant groups have started to fight some Sunni groups in the street, but we will try to stop this sort of thing.”

The dome of the al-Askariya shrine was destroyed on February 22 last year in a bombing blamed on Sunni militants believed to be linked to al-Qaeda.

Sacred shrine

— The al-Askariya Mosque – also known as the Golden Mosque – is one of the four main Shia shrines in Iraq, parts of it dating from the ninth century

— It contains the tombs of two of the 12 revered Shia imams: the tenth Imam Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868AD, and his son, the eleventh Imam Hasan al-Askari, who died in 874AD

— It stands beside the place where Iman Mahdi – the twelfth Imam, after whom Moqtadr al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army is named – disappeared. Shias believe the “hidden imam” will return to bring justice to the world before the Day of Judgment

— The Golden Dome was completed in 1905 and covered by 72,000 golden pieces. At about 20 metres (66ft) wide and with a circumference of 68 metres, it was one of the biggest domes in the Islamic world

Source: Times archives

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