Minarets blown up at Iraq Shi'ite shrine

Suspected al Qaeda militants blew up yesterday the minarets of a revered Shi'ite mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra, target of a 2006 bomb attack that unleashed a tidal wave of sectarian violence.

Fearing renewed bloodshed, Iraq's government imposed a three-day curfew in Baghdad as Shi'ite and Sunni political and religious leaders called on their followers to remain calm.

But police said gunmen blew up the Sunni Grand Mosque in Iskandariya south of Baghdad, totally destroying it. A second was damaged in another blast and attackers set fire to a mosque in Baghdad's Bayaa district. No injuries were reported.

A grim mood descended on the capital as people hurried home before the start of the curfew. The streets were largely empty apart from patrolling Iraqi police and soldiers.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders met the top US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and US ambassador Ryan Crocker, agreeing on political and military steps aimed at "promoting restraint", US officials said.

US military spokesman Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner said Mr Maliki had ordered the deployment of an extra Iraqi brigade to Samarra while investigators tried to establish how the bombers managed to stage an apparent repeat of the February 22, 2006 attack on the al-Askari mosque that collapsed its famed golden dome.