In article <qkntvv87vttftotgeqlcvkagpl6ciphehl@4ax.com>, Mark Tyme <MarkTyme@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

On 09 Jan 2004 15:12:22 GMT,

Bomb Attack on Shiite Mosque in Iraq

Friday, January 09, 2004

BAQOUBA, Iraq ? A car rigged with explosives exploded outside a Shiite
Muslim mosque as worshippers streamed out of Friday prayers, according to
medical officials in the central Iraqi town of Baqouba.

Initial reports from Iraqi officials indicated that five people died and 37
others were hurt but U.S. officials later said that the blast left only two
dead.

Attacks on Shiite and Sunni Muslim (search) mosques have increased in recent
weeks, raising tensions between the two communities. An upsurge in sectarian
violence could undermine U.S. efforts to put together a democratic government
in Iraq, where the Shiite majority was oppressed for decades under Saddam
Hussein's mainly Sunni regime.

After the Baqouba (search) blast, footage from Associated Press Television

News

showed men pulling sheets over two bodies lying in the street as women in

black

robes wailed. Wounded people wandered in a daze.

The vehicle where the explosives had been hidden was ablaze near the mosque
entrance.

Five people were killed and 37 wounded in the blast, Ahmed Ali at Baqouba
General Hospital said in the town, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Under Saddam's authoritarian rule, ethnic and religious divisions in Iraq were
largely kept under check. Since Saddam's fall in April, religious leaders on
both sides have tried to prevent an outbreak of tensions.

Still, violence has erupted. On Dec. 9, a Sunni mosque was bombed in Baghdad,
killing three people, in an attack that mosque officials blamed on Shiite
extremists.

A bomb planted in a parked car went off on Nov. 3 outside a holy Shiite shrine
in the city of Karbala (search), killing three people and wounding 12.

The violence has appeared separate from the guerrilla campaign against U.S.
troops, which has focused in the majority Sunni regions north and west of
Baghdad. But sectarian attacks have also raised resentment against the
Americans among some Iraqis, who blame the occupation for the lawlessness and
chaos of post-Saddam Iraq.

Shiites, who make up the majority of Iraq's 25 million people, are

concentrated

in the southern parts of the country. Baghdad's 5 million residents are

equally

divided between the Muslim communities.

There is no "Sunni / Shiite War".

These are delberate acts of provocation by the US and Mossad to keep
Iraqis at each others' throats, so they become too busy to both
killing Americans. It's one of the oldest tricks in the CIA playbook

Highly unlikely. All of the groups in Iraq hate each other, and they have a
very long history of fighting with each other. The only reason we didn't see
that during Saddam's reign was because Saddam was so ruthless than no other
group dared to get out of line, and members of his own group could join the
Baath party.

Woods