FRONTLINE said al-Qaeda blew up the Golden Mosque. Bombers wore Iraqi security forces uniforms

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/22/AR2006022200454.html

<snip>Police said two bombs that had been planted at the mosque overnight exploded at dawn. Some local officials in Samarra said the bombers were dressed in the uniforms of Iraqi security forces. Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari, in one of several televised news conferences and appeals by Iraqi and U.S. leaders, said preliminary investigation into the bombing pointed to "infiltration'' of Iraqi security forces.

Jafari declared Thursday a day of national mourning. Iraq's Interior and Defense ministries ordered Iraqi security forces on maximum alert for what was expected to be a day of mass protests. Trucks with loudspeakers trolled Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, announcing protests set for Thursday morning.

Shiite religious and political leaders eschewed any public talk of revenge, mindful that civil strife would threaten the dominance assumed by Iraqi Shiites since the 2003 ouster of President Saddam Hussein by the U.S.-led invasion. The Shiites have withstood countless other provocations in nearly three years of war. Bombings on Monday and Tuesday killed scores of people in two Shiite areas of Baghdad.

There was no immediate assertion of responsibility for Wednesday's attack. Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, told al-Arabiya television that he believed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq organization may have been the culprit. "The main aim of these terrorist groups is to drag Iraq into a civil war,'' Rubaie said.

"Violence will only contribute to what the terrorists sought to achieve by this act,'' Bush said in a written statement in Washington. "I ask all Iraqis to exercise restraint in the wake of this tragedy." snip

In Sadr City, representatives of Sadr called for restraint and sought to deflect blame from Iraq's Sunnis, the Shiites' rivals for power. Followers came running late Wednesday when a Sadr preacher took up a bullhorn outside Sadr's offices to give the direction that the armed, angry crowds were waiting for. The mosque attack was the work of "occupiers," or Americans, "and Zionists," said the cleric, Abdul Zara Saidy. In Iran, Shiite leaders echoed the accusation.

[Parche]

1. It Was AQIASH

Al-Qaeda Iraq After Saddam Hussein :sarcasm: :sarcasm:


Why do they always say it is Al-Kida? :grr: :grr: :grr:

:hi:

[Ian David]

2. I'm gonna guess they wore Iraqi security uniforms because that was their day job. n/t

[Junkdrawer]

3. Did they look this this?

http://d-notice.blogspot.com/2005/09/basrad-notice.html

[Supersedeas]

4. the media really did a smash up job of following up on that one too