(22 Feb 2006) SHOTLIST
1. Various shots of people walking towards damaged shrine
2. Protesters chanting at shrine entrance
3. Protester holding up a piece of gold decoration from the dome
4. Various damaged golden dome
5. Wide shot rubble inside shrine court
6. Various damaged windows
7. People inspecting damage
8. People holding banner on roof
9. Wide shot protesters at shrine courtyard
10. Protesters holding up signs and books
11. Woman crying and screaming
12. Various people clearing up debris in shrine
13. Pile of debris in room at shrine
14. Various shots of damaged shrine
STORYLINE
Assailants dressed as police detonated a pair of bombs Wednesday inside one of Iraq's most famous Shiite shrines, severely damaging its golden dome, sending protesters into the streets and triggering reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques.
This assault is the third major attack against Shiite targets in as many days and threatens to enflame religious passions at a time when sectarian and ethnic parties are trying to form a new government.
Shiite leaders called for calm.
But militants attacked 90 Sunni mosques nationwide, killing three clerics, and a gunfight broke out between Shiite militiamen and guards at a Sunni political party in Basra.
No group claimed responsibility for the early morning attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra, 95 kilometres (60 miles) north of Baghdad.
But suspicion fell on Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The Interior Ministry said four men, one wearing military uniform and three in black, entered the mosque early on Wednesday and detonated two bombs, one of which caused the dome to collapse and damaged part of the northern wall of the shrine.
Police believed some people might be buried under the debris after the early morning explosion but by late afternoon no casualties had been found.
The shrine contains the tombs of two revered Shiite imams, both descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and is among Iraq's most sacred sites for Shiite Muslims.
Tradition says the Askariya shrine, which draws Shiite pilgrims from throughout the Islamic world, is near the place where the last of the 12 Shiite imams, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared.
Al-Mahdi, known as the "hidden imam," was the son and grandson of the two imams buried in the Askariya shrine.
Shiites believe he is still alive and will return to restore justice to humanity.
The mosque's golden dome was completed in 1905.
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