Fears of civil war as shrine blast sparks sectarian anger

IRAQ: Sectarian violence in Iraq after suspected al Qaeda bombs devastated a major Shi'ite shrine left religious and political leaders in Baghdad and abroad scrambling on Thursday to halt a descent into all-out civil war.

In the bloodiest apparent reprisal for the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, men in police uniform seized a dozen Sunni rebel suspects, including two Egyptians, from a prison in the mainly Shi'ite city of Basra and killed 11 of them. Gunmen fired on dozens of Sunni mosques in Baghdad and elsewhere.

President Jalal Talabani summoned leaders of all sides to a summit early on Thursday after the bloodless but symbolic dawn bombing provoked outrage among majority Shi'ites that surpassed the anger caused by the thousands of killings by Sunni militants since U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein three years ago.

U.S. President George W. Bush, whose diplomats and military commanders are pressing Shi'ite leaders to accept Sunnis in a national unity government after they took part in an election in December, urged Iraqis not to rise to the bait of what U.S. and Iraqi officials called an al Qaeda attempt to fuel civil strife.

"Violence will only contribute to what the terrorists sought to achieve," he said in a statement, as 130,000 U.S. troops stood by to back up Iraq's new security forces and keep order.

A policeman guarding a Sunni mosque in the southern Shi'ite city of Diwaniya was killed in an attack by Shi'ite militants.

Three Sunni clerics were among six people killed elsewhere.

The United Nations Security Council, rarely able to find a common voice on Iraq since its bitter divisions over the U.S. invasion in 2003, sounded a note of alarm in calling on Iraqis to rally behind a non-sectarian government.

"The members of the Security Council understand the anguish caused by the attacks but urge the people of Iraq to defy its perpetrators by showing restraint and unity," it said. "We don't know what could happen in the next few days," said Mohammed Tariq, standing in a long line outside a bread shop in Baghdad as residents hurried home after the government declared three days of mourning that will keep businesses closed. "I will buy as much as I can because of the security situation."

Washington wants stability to help it extract its forces but Shi'ite political leaders renewed sharp criticisms of its calls for them to give Sunnis key posts in government, with one party leader accusing the U.S. ambassador of encouraging the bombers by supporting Sunni demands for a share of power this week.

Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, accused the bombers, who dressed as policemen, of trying to derail talks on a national unity coalition: "We must...work together against...the danger of civil war," he told Iraqis in a televised address.

The Shi'ites' reclusive and ageing senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani made a rare, if silent, television appearance that underlined the gravity of the crisis. He called in a statement for protests but restraint as protesters outside his office in Najaf chanted: "Rise up Shi'ites! Take revenge!"

Militiamen loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr patrolled streets in Baghdad and clashed in Basra and elsewhere with Sunnis. A Sadr aide said: "If the Iraqi government does not do its job to defend the Iraqi people we are ready to do so."

Sadr himself also called for national unity. Baghdad, Thursday Reuters