U.S. Embassy in Baghdad condemns bloody attack on Shiite visitors in Samarra

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has condemned, in the name of the United States of America, the bloody attack that took place against a group of Shiite visitors to the holy Shrine in Samarra city of north-central Iraq’s Salahaddin Province last Saturday that killed 31 people and wounded 20 others. “The United States of America condemns the attack that took place against the Shiite visitors to Sammara,” a U.S. Embassy statement, copy of which was received by IraqiNews.com news agency on Monday, said. “The attack against Iraqis on basis of religion and sectarian differences, is a something we condemn, present our warm condolences for the families of the victims of that terrorist attack,” the statement added. A source in Samarra’s Police Operations Command had reported that the final result of the suicide attack against visitors of Imam Hassan al-Askari’s Shrine, where they were taking lunch in a Samarra restaurant, had reached 31 people killed and 20 others injured. Imam Hassan al-Askari is the 11th Imam of the Shiite Muslims and he was the son of Imam Ali al-Hadi and the father of Imam al-Mahdi, who Muslims believe is still alive and would appear on the Dooms day. Askari died in Samarra after the Islamic Abbassid capital moved to Samarra in the Mid Abbasid era in the 6th Century ad. The golden tomb of the two Askari Imams in Samarra rising to 68 meters had been blown up by an explosion in February, 2006, that lead to a wave of sectarian violence in several southern Iraqi cities and the capital of Baghdad..The tomb was attacked again in June, 2007, destroying its two golden minarets. The Shrine of Imams Ali al-Hadi and al-Hassan al-Askari in Samarra city, the largest city of Salahaddin Province, is one of four main Shiite shrines n Iraq, that was built in the 10th and the 11th Century ad. Samarra, 120 km to the north of Baghdad, whilst Tikrit, the center of Salahaddin Province is 175 km to the north of Baghdad. SKH (TS)/SR 604