2007 Al-Askari Mosque Bombing - Events Around Changing of The Guard

Events Around Changing of The Guard

Since the 2006 bombing of the al-Askari shrine, it had been under protection of local guards who were predominantly Sunni. Both American military and Iraqi security officials were worried that the guards had been infiltrated by Al Qaeda forces in Iraq. To counter this the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad were bringing in a new guard unit – predominantly Shiite. This changing of the guard is believed to have had some role in the timing of the attack. Abdul Sattar Abdul Jabbar, a prominent Sunni cleric, told Al Jazeera television that local Sunnis may have been provoked as he claimed "the new guards had arrived at the shrine shouting sectarian slogans". Gunfire was reported around the shrine before the attack, "which may have been related to the change of guards." Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stated that Policemen at the shrine (15 of them according to US military sources) had been detained for questioning along with "an unspecified number of other suspects." It was confirmed that "the entire Iraqi security force responsible for guarding the mosque, the 3rd Battalion of the Salahuddin province police, was detained for investigation." The Interior Ministry would only tell reporters that agents of "a terrorist group" had been arrested and were under interrogation. On Sunday 17 June 2007 Iraqi forces captured four additional suspects and their raid “also turned up a compact disc showing attacks on U.S.-led troops, blasting caps and detonation wire, identification cards for access to al-Askari mosque and photographs depicting terrorist training exercises.”