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World leaders strongly denounced the coordinated attacks in Iraq on Tuesday, in which 182 Shiite Muslim worshipers were killed and hundreds of others wounded, and they urged the Iraqis to remain calm.
The simultaneous bombing blasts targeted Shiite holy shrines in Baghdad and the southern city of Karbala as the Shiite Muslims celebrated the Ashura festival.
Worldwide blame in strongest words
The UN Security Council "condemns in the strongest possible terms Today's horrendous terrorist attacks in Baghdad and Karbala," said a statement read by France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere Tuesday.
Speaking for Kofi Annan, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said the secretary-general urged all Iraqis to refrain from acts that could undermine efforts to achieve national reconciliation at this delicate stage of the country's political situation.
"We condemn these brutal terrorist attacks in the strongest terms," White House spokesman Scott MaClellan said in Washington, while insisting that democracy is taking root and it cannot be turned back.
Britain, Germany and France denounced the devastating attacks outside the mosques. In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said the bombings were "barbarous acts that we condemn in the strongest terms."
Strong words of condemnation also came from Russia and Turkey, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko saying, "These inhuman acts by extremists targeted civilians fuels particular indignation."
Some blame al-Qaida
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Iran's vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs, blamed al-Qaida for Tuesday's attacks on Shiite Muslims in Iraq and Pakistan.
"The reactionary al-Qaida terror group reached a conclusion ... that they have two enemies: the United States as the political enemy and Shiites as the ideological enemy," Abtahi said in a written message.
He said the explosions were the work of "devils who oppose stability, security and national sovereignty in Iraq," television reports said.
Abtahi said al-Qaida considers Shiites more dangerous than their political enemy.
Jordanian King Abdullah said the attacks were "just another element of extremism under the umbrella of al-Qaida or its affiliates. We have seen that signature before."
Meanwhile, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a Shiite Governing Council member, blamed the attacks on Abu Musab Zarqawi, who was suspected of working for the al-Qaida network.
US forces in Iraq said last month that they had intercepted a letter from Zarqawi, calling for suicide bombings against Shiites to fan sectarian tension in Iraq.
US insisting security not falling
After the attacks, US and allied military officials insisted that the security in Iraq is not falling, saying the bloody attacks did not mean security was inadequate, but showed it was impossible to beat determined guerrillas every time.
"We certainly don't believe that this indicates that the coalition is demonstrating weakness," said Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the US army in Iraq.
Some Iraqi Shiite Muslim leaders, however, strongly criticized the United States and its security policies as the occupying power for the attacks.
"We put the responsibility on the occupation forces both directly and indirectly," said cleric Sayyed Ahmed Saffi, a spokesman for Iraq's most influential Shiite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
"Until now, it is the occupation forces' responsibility because they are dealing with the Iraqi police in an unsuitable way," Saffi said, without saying whether Sistani endorsed his comments.
"The existence of the occupation encourages such attacks," he added.
Others said the attacks became a reality because the coalition forces have left Iraqi borders open to infiltrators.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted by Iran's state-run radio as saying the blame should go to US-led coalition troops as they are "responsible for security" for the victims.
(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2004)
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