Inquiry urged into warning of shrine bomb

Iraqi politicians demanded an inquiry on Mar. 1 into why the government did not act on a warning about a plan to bomb the Askariya mosque in Samarra, an attack that has brought the country to the brink of civil war. Government and political sources told Reuters the minister for national security sent a report to the government two weeks before the Feb. 22 bombing, saying security had been breached around the shrine. But the government ignored it, they said. "[The minister for national security] sent a report saying they had received information of attacks being prepared against Shiite shrines," one official in the government said, criticizing the inaction of the Shiite-led interim administration. A spokesman for the main minority Sunni political bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, said the government's apparent failure to act raised questions about its role in the incident. "The report indicates the role of the government was greater than just ignoring the warning," said Zafeer al-Ani. "I believe the government is involved either directly or indirectly through the use of some security forces." Iraqi and US officials have blamed the Samarra bomb on al-Qaida, saying the group is trying to sow sectarian discord in an attempt to destroy Iraq's progress toward democracy. The pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said it had obtained a copy of the security minister's report and that it contained a specific warning about the Samarra mosque. The minister, Abdul Karim al-Enazy, told Reuters that he did warn the government that militants were planning attacks against Shiite shrines, but insisted the report referred to Karbala. Enazy, a Shiite, said Samarra was not mentioned at all, despite assertions to the contrary by other officials. National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie denied that any such report even existed. But a government official, from outside the Shiite bloc, said: "Samarra was mentioned by name in the report. Whatever they say now is not true."