In Iraq, several Sunni mosques came under attack within hours of Wednesday’s bombing of the Askariya Shiite shrine in Samarra. At least five people were killed in bombings of four mosques in Basra. Another four mosques were attacked or burned around Baghdad. The Iraqi government has imposed a national curfew amid fears of a repeat of the violence that followed the first attack on the Askariya mosque last year. Speaking at the United Nations, Iraqi imam Sheikh Majid Ismail Mohammed al-Hafeed warned of the attack’s significance.

Sheikh Majid Ismail Mohammed al-Hafeed: “If it was another mosque in another place, maybe it would be different from this special mosque, because it is not a memento of Shiites only, it is a Sunni area. It is a symbol of unity for the whole area for the past 13 centuries.”