Report: 3 Sunni mosques seriously damaged by blasts

Above: Prime Minister Maliki visits the al-Askariya mosque following today's bombing, which toppled the two minarets remaining after the golden dome was collapsed in an attack last year.

Baghdad, Jun 13, (VOI) - Unknown gunmen exploded three Sunni mosques south of Baghdad on Wednesday, only hours after gunmen blew up two minarets of the Shiite golden mosque in Samarra, a security source said.

"Three mosques were brought down after unknown gunmen detonated explosives inside them," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The three mosques were the Grand Iskandariyah Mosque, Hiteen Mosque and Abdullah Mosque in al-Iskanderiyah district, 60 km south of Baghdad, the source added.

The source did not say if there were casualties because of the attacks.

Earlier on Wednesday police sources and eyewitnesses said the two minarets of Shiite Ali al-Hadi and Hassan Askary shrines in the city of Samarra were blown up during the morning.

Iraqi officials and clerics denounced the destruction of the two minarets and urged people to show self-restraint.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki denounced the attack on the Shiite minarets and decided to impose an indefinite curfew on the Iraqi capital Baghdad after the bombing attack.

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, in a statement, strongly denounced the bombing attack against two Shiite minarets in the city of Samarra, calling for self-restraint.

The Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq condemned the bombing attack that targeted the shrine minarets in Samarra on Wednesday, holding the U.S. "occupying" forces and the current Iraqi government fully responsible for the attack.

From VOI

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