Reichstag Dome?
It was only while reading an ‘Aqoul comment thread that it sank in that: the Samarra shrine bombing appears not to have, itself, caused any casualties.
No group claimed responsibility for the early morning attack on the Askariya shrine in this city 60 miles north of Baghdad, but suspicion fell on Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The Interior Ministry said four men, one wearing a military uniform and three in black, entered the mosque early Wednesday and detonated two bombs, one of which collapsed the dome into a crumbly mess and damaged part of the northern wall of the shrine.
That’s the AP on February 22. Within hours on the same day, massive and effective lethal reprisals commence against the Sunni community. Sunni negotiators pull out of talks on joining a unity government and Shiite death squads kill dozens to hundreds of Sunni clerics, politicians and blokes.
Hm.
Comment by Frank —
February 25, 2006 @ 6:25 pm
Yup. Evidently it took at least 4 hours to drill one of the holes in the pillars where the explosives were planted.
Comment by kelley b. —
February 26, 2006 @ 3:08 pm
I left a comment along these lines on Juan Cole’s site last Tuesday.
He declined to post it.
So I posted my opinions here.
Given the complacent response of some Cheneyburton shills on CNN and Fox, you have to wonder if this wasn’t cooked up in some Special Ops/private contractor backroom deal.