Iraq: Civil War Escalated?

Here is the story in a nutshell... Earlier in the day, in Iraq, a famous Shiite shrine in Samarra was bombed by insurgents. It is believed this was attack was aimed at further pushing the country into civil war. USAToday notes that the bombing "has renewed fears of an escalation in violence between the country's Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities" and the AP notes that "the string of back-and-forth attacks seemed to push Iraq closer to all-out civil war than at any point in the three years since the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein".

Reuters reports that reprisal attacks against Sunnis have already begun. The U.S. pledged to help restore the mosque and urged calm, but a lot of the anger is directed at the U.S. for allowing this to happen. This is only going to escalate in the days and weeks to come.

Time magazine has a photo essay on the bombing.

And Juan Cole has a good post that's making the rounds-
Shiite protests Roil Iraq

Tuesday was an apocalyptic day in Iraq. I am not normally exactly sanguine about the situation there. But the atmospherics are very, very bad, in a way that most Western observers will miss...

This is likely a turning point. And not the kind of corner-turning Bush promised us was happening.

Shit, meet fan.