Reprisals Hit Iraq Sunni Mosques

June 14, 2007

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6751909.stm

Suspected Shia Muslim militants have destroyed three Sunni mosques near the Iraqi capital, a day after a repeat attack on a major Shia pilgrimage site.

The overnight attacks bring to six the number of Sunni mosques targeted since suspected Sunni militants toppled the two minarets of the Samarra shrine.

Curfews appear to have prevented the same level of violence seen after a similar attack on the mosque last year.

Then militants blew up Samarra's dome, triggering massive reprisals.

The BBC's Andrew North says that attack on 22 February 2006 brought Iraq to the brink of civil war.

An official in the prime minister's office said the curfew in Baghdad would be lifted on Saturday.

But the threat of major sectarian bloodshed remains, our correspondent says, with many Sunni communities still fearing retribution from Shia death squads.