Insurgents Blow up Baghdad Shrine

Sectarian animosity in Iraq escalated yesterday when anti-Shiite forces destroyed the gold-domed shrine of Samarra. The action could ignite full-fledged civil war:

Suspected insurgents blew up the gold-domed shrine in Samarra that houses two important Shiite imams today in an act apparently tailored to stoke sectarian passions between Iraq’s Shiite majority and Sunni minority.

Witnesses near the Askari shrine complex said it was badly damaged in one and possibly two 6:45 a.m. explosions. There was no official word of casualties, but some witnesses said victims might be under the rubble.

Little of the massive gold dome remained, witnesses said. Residents were angrily chanting, “God is great.”

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Insurgents Blow up Baghdad Shrine

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Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“One woman at a rally in New Jersey told me last week that she was ‘nauseously optimistic.’ That may capture a lot of people’s last-minute jitters.”

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), quoted by Axios, on what Democrats feel ahead of the midterm elections.

“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom.”

— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by The Wrap.

“Boy, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. It feels like a real desperation play to me, because it has got zero basis in the law.”

— Republican election law expert Ben Ginsberg, quoted by Politico, on the Trump administration’s effort to invalidate Alaska’s election results.

Numerati

3,824

$1.4 billion

-35 points

31%

63% to 38%

KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”