2nd Sunni mosque blown up in Basra despite curfew

Left: Rubble of the destroyed Sunni mosque in Basra today. Local residents say bombers loaded into pickup trucks pulled up to the al-Ashrah al-Mubashra mosque at dawn. Then, minutes after they left, a huge explosion tore through the building, leveling it completely.

BAGHDAD, June 16 — Hooded gunmen clad in black blew up another Sunni mosque in the southern city of Basra today after ordering the police officers at the mosque to flee, and despite a curfew imposed by Iraq’s central government, witnesses and security officials said.

The blast at the Al-Ashrah Al-Mubashra mosque in central Basra — the second Sunni mosque razed in as many days — suggested that Shiite militias south of the capital have rejected calls for restraint from Iraqi leaders after explosions Wednesday toppled two minarets at a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra.

The latest attack immediately heightened tensions between Sunni and Shiite officials, and for some, seemed to confirm that Iraq’s central government has lost the ability to exert much influence, not just on areas of the Kurdish North, but also majority-Shiite strongholds in the South.

Read the rest at the NY Times

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