A year after attack, a Shiite treasure still lies in ruins
SAMARRA, Iraq -- There is still no gold dome on the Mosque of the Golden Dome.
It has been a year, by the Muslim calendar, since an attack on one of the Shiites most sacred shrines here shattered this ancient mosque, ripping a hole to the heavens in its once glorious dome. Now, it is a hulking shell of its former self, gnarled and twisted metal snaking around the crumbling concrete structure. The blue and gold tiles that adorned the facade of the Al Askariya Shrine, covered with graceful Arabic script from the Koran, are in tatters, the broken pieces still on the ground in the empty courtyard.
Not a single brick moved since the attack on Feb. 22, 2006. There has been no rebuilding and no healing.
But the blast did not just destroy a building. More than any event since the American invasion in 2003, it set this country on its present course, unleashing a tide of sectarian bloodletting that has left tens of thousands of Iraqis dead and hundreds of thousands more displaced from their homes as the result of sectarian cleansing.
On Monday, the first anniversary of the attack by the Muslim calendar, bombings at two Baghdad markets, evidently targeting Shiites, killed at least 67 people.
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It has been a year, by the Muslim calendar, since an attack on one of the Shiites most sacred shrines here shattered this ancient mosque, ripping a hole to the heavens in its once glorious dome. Now, it is a hulking shell of its former self, gnarled and twisted metal snaking around the crumbling concrete structure. The blue and gold tiles that adorned the facade of the Al Askariya Shrine, covered with graceful Arabic script from the Koran, are in tatters, the broken pieces still on the ground in the empty courtyard.
Not a single brick moved since the attack on Feb. 22, 2006. There has been no rebuilding and no healing.
But the blast did not just destroy a building. More than any event since the American invasion in 2003, it set this country on its present course, unleashing a tide of sectarian bloodletting that has left tens of thousands of Iraqis dead and hundreds of thousands more displaced from their homes as the result of sectarian cleansing.
On Monday, the first anniversary of the attack by the Muslim calendar, bombings at two Baghdad markets, evidently targeting Shiites, killed at least 67 people.