IRAQ: A daytime curfew in Baghdad and surrounding provinces appeared to check the pace of sectarian unrest yesterday, as Iraq's religious leaders used the Muslim day of prayer to stage symbolic joint services for Shia and Sunni worshippers and call for unity.
However, there were sporadic outbreaks of violence in the capital as well as in central and southern Iraq. United States and Iraqi security forces remained on high alert as the death count in the wake of Wednesday's bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra passed 200.
The country's most powerful Shia politician, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said in a televised address those who bombed the shrine "do not represent the Sunnis in Iraq". He blamed former Saddam loyalists and extremist followers of the Jordanian-born militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "We all have to unite in order to eliminate them," he said.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, acknowledged that this week's violence had damaged efforts to form a government of national unity. The anti-Sunni backlash following the Samarra attack triggered a walkout from coalition talks by the largest Sunni bloc.
"Yes, this makes it harder today and perhaps tomorrow," said Ms Rice. "But I'm confident the Iraqis are devoted to, dedicated to, the formation of a national unity government, and I think they will get back to that process very shortly."
Ms Rice said the violence had also alarmed Arab countries who feared the disintegration of Iraq along sectarian lines could spark wider unrest between Shias and Sunnis. Arab League ambassadors in Cairo condemned the attack in Samarra.
The two feuding communities in Iraq appeared to pull back yesterday from the brink of civil war as the curfews and calls for calm from religious leaders took effect.
"It is tense, but some sense is beginning to prevail," said a government minister. Baghdad was relatively quiet. Police and army units sealed off districts, setting up roadblocks to halt cross-city traffic. Residents were allowed to walk to Friday prayers. At the Abu Hanifa mosque, the city's most important Sunni site, Imam Ahmed Hasan al-Taha described the attack on the golden mosque in Samarra as "a conspiracy to draw Iraqis into civil war".
In Basra, more than 10,000 Sunnis and Shias converged on al-Adillah mosque, where a representative of Iraq's top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called for a halt to the divisions.
Other joint prayer services were held, including one at the bombed Askariya shrine. Security forces reportedly turned away several hundred Sunnis who showed up to express solidarity with their Shia neighbours. In the Sadr city district of east Baghdad, the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, ordered his followers to refrain from harming fellow Muslims.
Following prayers in the southern cities of Amara and Kut, supporters of the radical cleric staged protests demanding the removal of the US ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad.
The envoy has been heavily criticised by Shias for remarks this week in which he said Iraqi security must not be in the hands of sectarian parties or militias. Some Sunnis have accused Shia groups in the interior ministry of running anti-Sunni death-squads. Some Shia leaders say Mr Khalilzad's intervention gave the green light to Sunni rebels to destroy the Samarra mosque.
Prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari vowed to step up security at holy shrines. Many Iraqis have accused his government, and US forces, of failing to prevent the attack.