It was a sunny, cool, and beautiful day till the bad news was spread in allover the country. "One of the most revered shrines in Shiite Islam was bombed early this morning, causing the collapse of its dome," I heard the anchor saying on radio saw while I was going back to the office after a short assignment. Here is news again. I did not expect that this time it is not a mere explosion. It was worse than that. When I returned back to the office, I started working on gathering the information and then my bureau chief assigned me to write the story to the web. 
The first footage I saw was shown on the CNN taken from a local Iraqi channel, Al-Masar. I was shocked by the fact that a huge part of the shrines of Imam Ali al-Hadi and his son Hasan al-Askari were damaged by the bombs. Iron bars poking into the sky were all that was left. I did not have a good feeling and thought this might be the spark unless Iraqis understand that this is what their enemies really want. "I hope they don't reach their goals," I said within myself of the terrorists act. But I was wrong. What happened was not so much expected until the Shiite Marjiya [religious authorities], the Sunni clergymen and politicians, and the educated people showed up on TV and radio stations. They called on Iraqis to be aware of the danger and to have self control. However, attacks against Sunnis have already started. Just in Baghdad, at least 27 Sunni mosques and an office for the Iraqi Islamic Party were attacked by gunmen after the bomb blast in Samarra. Police told Reuters that one mosque was completely burnt while others were attacked with small-arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. Three clerics and three bodyguards were killed, and another cleric was kidnapped, according to interior ministry sources. In Diwaniya, (110 miles) south of Baghdad, clashes erupted after militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr attacked the houses of Arab Sunnis. One of Sadr's men was killed, a member of the Diwaniya provincial council told Reuters. Southwards, in Basra, gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque with rocket propelled grenades and the local police said shootouts erupted between Sadr's militiamen and members of the Iraqi Islamic Party in the city.
Iraq's failure Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari announced a three-day mourning in a televised appearance. "I call on my people to express their condemnation," Jafari said. He asked Iraqis to "close the door to all those who are fishing in the troubled water." Huh! Oh really?! Good morning Dr. Jafari! I am glad you woke up.
I decided to go back home early and work from there. I expected most of the streets to be blocked by the security forces. I made my driver take me in an armored car this time. I hate to use it but I had to. It was the sunset time. Most Iraqis usually seize the opportunity that it is not too late, so they hang out for shopping and having some fun. Today, Baghdad looked like the city of ghosts. All the way back home, I saw few cars and all were speeding to avoid any danger might happen. It was scary, specially it wasn't fully dark.
And now, I am sad to see a country suffered from tyranny will suffer from a civil war. I am afraid that we'll have the same fate of Lebanon. I don't know if this civil strife will stop or continue. Even under dictatorship and tyranny, we have not gone through such a day. It is hard to see this beautiful and ancient country destroyed. It seems what the Americans have done was not enough. Iraqis should suffer, be killed, watch themselves humiliated, and kill each other just because America wants to remove Saddam from its way to make the world safer. Or let's say to make America safer and hell be with the non-Americans as some of them say. Let the whole world be happy and "safe" now because Iraq's "liberation" made it safe for them, but unfortunately made it a hell for Iraqis.
