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Suicide car bomb hits Shiite endowment office in Baghdad, kills 20

04 June 2012 20:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Up to 20 people were killed and some 125 others wounded in a suicide car bomb explosion near the Shiite endowment office in central Baghdad on Monday, apparently, in an attempt to stir up sectarian strife among Iraqis, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"The death toll rose to 20 and up to 125 people were wounded by the suicide car bomb attacks in central Baghdad," the source said on condition of anonymity.

The attack occurred at about 10:45 a.m. local time (GMT 0745) when a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into the entrance of the Shiite endowment office in Bab al-Mu’dham district, the source said.

The powerful blast destroyed the building of the endowment office and badly damaged surrounding buildings and houses, while many cars were left charred and badly destroyed at the scene.

Iraqi security forces sealed off the scene and some main streets in downtown the capital, as ambulances, police and civilian cars evacuated the casualties to nearby medical complex.

Xinhua correspondent in central Baghdad heard a powerful explosion and saw a plume of black smoke rise above the area.

"There are agendas to divide the Iraqi people by stirring up tension between the Shiite and Sunni endowment offices, as they ( the attackers) use the dispute over the al-Askari shrine in Samarra," Sami al-Massudi, deputy chief of the Shiite endowment office, told reporters.

The blast came amid tensions between the Shiite and Sunni communities after the Shiite office sought to take over management of many Sunni mosques and properties, including the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, 110 km north of Baghdad, which contains the tombs of Ali al-Hadi and Hassan al-Askari, the 10th and 11th of the Shiite’s 12 most revered Imams.

Sunnis in Samarra argue that the two Imams are their ancestors and they were running the shrine over hundreds of years.

"The Shiite endowment has the right to annex some shrines, but some want to make their answer by blood," Massudi said.

"The Shiite street is under control, because they follow instructions from religious leadership in the holy city of Najaf, therefore we are committed to self-control to thwart this scheme which is intended to incite sectarian strife in Iraq," he added.

For his part, Faris al-Mahdawi, spokesman of the Sunni endowment office condemned in a statement the attack on the Shiite office. "We condemn this criminal act and announce our support to our brothers in the Shiite endowment," Mahdawi said.

"Our headquarters in Um al-Qura mosque was attacked by several mortar rounds after the attack on the Shiite endowment office, but there is no casualties," said Ahmed Abdul Ghaffour al-Samarraie, chief of the Sunni endowment office in Baghdad’s western district of Adil.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned the attack on the Shiite endowment office and confirmed that there was another attack on the Sunni one, warning Iraqis of attempts by unnamed parties to provoke sectarian strife.

"We confirm that such heinous crimes will fail to sow sectarian strife among the Iraqi people," Maliki said in a statement posted on his website, adding that "The subsequent attack on the Sunni endowment is a clear evidence that there is a single party trying to foment a strife among Iraqis."

The Shiite and Sunni endowment offices are independent bodies affiliated to the government and are responsible for running the Shiite and Sunni mosques and their religious properties respectively.

On Feb. 22, 2006, Samarra’s Golden Mosque was attacked by a bomb, with its 100-year-old Golden Dome badly damaged, sparking reprisal killings between Shiite and Sunni communities that claimed lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks are still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease in violence since its peak in 2006 and 2007 when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.