IRAQ - Shi'ite Shrine Remains In Ruins.

By Feb. 12, it had been a year by the Islamic calendar since the Feb. 22, 2006, attack on al-Askariya Shrine in Samarra', one of the Shi'ites' most sacred sites, shattered this ancient mosque, ripping a hole in its once glorious dome. Now, it is a hulking shell of its former self, gnarled and twisted metal snaking around the crumbling concrete structure. The blue and gold tiles which adorned the shrine's facade, covered with graceful Arabic script from the Qur'an, are in tatters, the broken pieces still on the ground in the empty courtyard. Not one brick has been moved since the attack.

There has been no rebuilding and no healing. But the blast did not just destroy a building. More than any event since the US invasion in 2003, it set Iraq on its present course, unleashing a tide of sectarian bloodletting which has left tens of thousands of Iraqis dead and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes as a result of sectarian cleansing. On Feb. 12, bombings at two Baghdad markets targeting Shi'ites, killed at least 78 people.

There are continuing discussions about a reconstruction project for the mosque and the UN has been approached about being involved. But any large-scale project remains complicated not only by the distrust between Sunnis and Shi'ites, but also by the precarious security situation in Samarra'. Some of the forces responsible for guarding the shrine, drawn from Iraq's Facilities Protection Services, are considered suspect, possibly infiltrated by Sunni militants.

In Samarra', an almost entirely Sunni city which had prided itself on protecting the Shi'ite mosque for more than 1,000 years, there were no commemorations on Feb. 12, just the ever-present reminder of the shrine itself. Abu Hameed al-Samarra'ee, a teacher in Samarra', was on Feb. 13 quoted as saying: "I still feel sad despite the passing of a year. I can describe what was done as exactly like what happened to the World Trade Centre. Bad people used this incident to divide Iraq on a detestable sectarian basis".

The building still stands, but there are no more pilgrims and no prayers. The shops which line the alleys and boulevards leading to the shrine are open, but have very few customers. Residents say they would like nothing more than to have the mosque rebuilt, but they have no faith in the central government, thinking the Shi'ite politicians will use it as an excuse to take control.

Before the attack, more than a million Shi'ites would stream into the mosque each year, visiting the graves of the 10th and 11th Imams in the crypt below the shrine. They would come to honor Muhammad al-Mahdi, who became the 12th Imam when he was 5 years old. Shi'ites believe it was there that the Mahdi was put into a state of hiddenness by God in order to protect his life. His disappearance ended the line of imams descended from the prophet, and the Ja'fari Twelver Shi'ites believe the Mahdi will return at the end of days, at a time of chaos and destruction, to deliver divine justice.

The graves, located down a spiral staircase below ground under the dome, were not damaged in the explosion. But the dome, the defining feature of the mosque, was ravaged. Moving forward with any plan to rebuild is complicated by the fact that violence is the defining feature of this Sunni city. It was untouched in the invasion of 2003, but in the past four years it has twice fallen to Sunni/Neo-Salafi militants only to be retaken by major US military operations. The Americans, who try not to patrol too close to the mosque, keep one base in the city and say that if they left any time soon the place would again fall under the control of Neo-Salafi militants. There are only about 100 local Iraqi police officers and 200 National Police officers to control a city of about 100,000.

The roads which run south to Baghdad and north to Tikrit remain plagued by attacks, mostly roadside bombs. The government is discussing creating a special brigade of 3,500 soldiers to secure the roadways and protect a team of workers who would rebuild the mosque. But if those soldiers are Shi'ite, they will not be welcome. The International Herald Tribune (IHT) on Feb. 13 quoted Lt Col Abdul Jalil Hanni, commander of the police in Samarra', as saying: "If they send Shi'ites from the south, they will be killed. They should make the brigade with people from Tikrit and Samarra'".

The Sunni tribal elders in Samarra' have proposed their own plan to rebuild the shrine, but it is unlikely that Shi'ite religious and political leaders would trust them. Yet both groups say reconstruction of the dome would be a powerful symbol that could help counter the sectarian fighting.

Residents of Samarra', who are very careful with their words because elements of al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgent groups still hold much of the power in Samarra', remain as devastated by the destruction as the Shi'ites. The IHT quoted Zuhair Majeed, "who runs a shop just outside the gates of the shrine", as saying: "It was a catastrophe for Samarra' and the Islamic world. It was the people of Samarra' who protected it, reconstructed it and served it". But the people of Samarra' have chosen not to touch any of the rubble because they believe the real culprit has yet to be found.

The IHT quoted Shaikh Qahtan Yahya al-Salim, general secretary of the tribal shaikhs' council in Samarra', as saying: "You must know that the tribal leaders have not removed a single brick until now in order not to change the crime scene".