Word: samarra
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That's fine with everyone, as long as al-Sadr keeps his shock troops in check. In the immediate aftermath of the Samarra bombing, he was hearteningly subdued, ordering his followers to refrain from attacking Sunnis. After having participated in the orgy of anti-Sunni violence in the 24 hours following the attack, al-Sadr's fighters gradually responded to their leader's call. In a few places, his supporters were even credited with protecting Sunni mosques. For the more optimistic observers, those events seemed to confirm the notion that it is better to have al-Sadr inside the Iraqi...
...where al-Sadr's fighters hold sway, they use brute force to impose a strict Islamic code. They are frequently accused of kidnapping and assassinating those who resist them. Many Mahdi Army fighters have been absorbed into the Iraqi security forces and police, and in the aftermath of the Samarra bombing, many police vehicles in Baghdad were openly flying Mahdi Army colors--black and green. Sunni groups say policemen did nothing to stop the violence last week. In some places, they claim, policemen joined the mobs to kill Sunnis and defile their mosques...
...somebody who has fought against the occupying forces," says Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars, the leading Sunni clerical body. "All other Shi'ite leaders are seen as collaborators because they cooperate with the Americans." Al-Sadr stayed true to form after the Samarra bombing, lacing his statement with an angry condemnation of the "Crusaders" and demands for their withdrawal from Iraq. If al-Sadr can prevent the chaos in Iraq from turning into civil war, there's good reason the U.S. might even oblige...
...government's security forces cannot provide the necessary protection, the believers will do it." AYATOLLAH ALI AL-SISTANI, senior Iraqi Shi'ite cleric, after a bomb shattered the golden dome of the revered Askariya Shrine in Samarra, prompting attacks on dozens of Sunni mosques. Al-Sistani later urged his followers not to attack Sunni holy sites in revenge...
...February 22, 2006: The bombing of a sacred Shi'ite shrine in Samarra sparks sectarian violence that leaves more than 200 dead, including a group of foreign Arab prisoners in Basra