World leaders urge calm

FRANCE: Western and Muslim leaders alike urged Iraqis to stand back from the precipice of civil war Wednesday after the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine sparked deadly reprisals against Sunni mosques and worshippers.

US President George W. Bush denounced the blast and pleaded for calm even as crowds attacked 27 Sunni mosques in Baghdad, killing six people, in a rage over the destruction of the golden dome on Samarra's 1,000-year-old Imam Ali al-Hadi mausoleum.

"I ask all Iraqis to exercise restraint in the wake of this tragedy, and to pursue justice in accordance with the laws and constitution of Iraq. Violence will only contribute to what the terrorists sought to achieve," Bush said in a statement.

Politicians around the world recoiled at the spectacle of mobs machine-gunning and torching mosques in Baghdad in an unprecedented eruption of violence by the Shiites against the country's former Sunni elite.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed alarm that the attack could be a catalyst for broader conflict and sabotage Iraqi efforts to form a national unity government two months after national elections.

"The perpetrators of this attack had one motive and one alone - they want to cause strife and violence between Sunni and Shia, to derail democracy currently taking hold in Iraq," Blair said in a statement.

France also denounced the bombing of the shrine where Shiites believe their beloved 12th imam, a messianic figure, disappeared in the 9th century AD.

"France steadfastly condemns the attack this morning in Iraq on the mausoleum of the imams in Samarra," foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told reporters.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan declared in a statement that the attack "clearly aimed at provoking sectarian strife and undermining further the peace and stability of Iraq."

In Jordan, King Abdullah II warned that the destruction of the mosque "is aimed at sowing and fanning sectarian strife among the Iraqi people"."What happened is an attempt to disrupt the efforts being made to enhance national unity ... rebuild the nation and achieve a prosperous future for Iraq," the king said in a message to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pointed the finger at Washington over the bombing but called on Iraq's newly empowered Shiite majority not to resort to revenge attacks against the ousted Sunni Arab elite.

"This is a political crime, which must be tracked back to the intelligence services of the Zionists and the occupiers of Iraq," the Iranian media quoted Khamenei as saying.

He called on Iraqi Shiites to avoid attacking Sunni mosques in order not to "help the enemies of Islam".

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, who is himself a Sunni but rules over a country with a large Shiite community, warned the bombing was "meant to divide Muslims between Sunni and Shiite with the goal of breaking Iraq's unity and unity among Muslims."

Paris, Thursday AFP