Militants Attack Shiite Shrine in Samarra for Second Time

JIM LEHRER:

Bombings and politics in Iraq. We get an update from Damien Cave of the New York Times in Baghdad. Margaret Warner talked with him earlier this evening.

MARGARET WARNER:

Damien Cave, welcome. Let's talk first about the bombing, once again, of that revered Shiite mosque and shrine in Samarra. Now, U.S. officials here, Iraqi officials are blaming it on al-Qaida. We also read, though, that 15 policemen were detained at the area.

What is the latest thinking that you've reported on about who was responsible and how they managed to get this close to this well-guarded site?

DAMIEN CAVE, New York Times:

Well, it's not mutually exclusive that it would be al-Qaida or the police. American officials and Iraqis in the area have felt for a while that some of the police force that was protecting the shrine may have been infiltrated by al-Qaida. So it's possible that they were police forces that were also loyal to al-Qaida who were somehow involved.

The question is, how did they get so close? And it's not something that's answered yet. But it appears that the explosions required some kind of inside information, if, in fact, they were placed within the minarets, as opposed to a rocket or something fired from outside.

MARGARET WARNER:

Now, do the Iraqi officials you talked to regard this just as the latest in this string of spectacular bombings that we're seeing on the rise again? Or do they see it as a particularly ominous event in, say, political terms?

DAMIEN CAVE:

They seem to feel that it was an ominous event, in the sense that they responded very quickly. I mean, within an hour, there were responses coming out from the prime minister, from some of the key clerics. So there seems to be a sense of anxiety about whether or not this will be an ominous, new chapter.

However, at this point, it's still very hard to tell. And the reaction appears to be more muted than during the first attack of the Samarra shrine over a year ago.