2006 al-Askari mosque bombing

2006 al-Askari Shrine bombing
Part of the Iraqi Civil War
Photograph of the mosque before the attack
Samarra Location of the attack within Iraq
Location	Samarra, Saladin Governorate, Iraq
Coordinates	34°11′56″N 43°52′25″E / 34.1990°N 43.8736°E / 34.1990; 43.8736
Date	22 February 2006; 18 years ago (2006-02-22) 6:44 a.m. (UTC+03:00)
Target	Al-Askari Shrine
Attack type	Bombing
Deaths	None
Injured	None
Perpetrators	Unknown

The 2006 al-Askari Shrine bombing occurred on 22 February 2006 at approximately 6:44 a.m. local Iraqi time, and targeted the al-Askari Shrine in the city of Samarra, Iraq. The attack on the mosque, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, has not been claimed by any group; the then President of the United States, George W. Bush, claimed that the bombing was an al-Qaeda plot. Although the mosque was severely damaged from the blast, there were no casualties.

The attack was followed by retaliatory violence, with over a hundred dead bodies being found the next day^[1] and well over 1,000 deaths in the days following the bombing; some counts place the death toll at over 1,000 on the first day alone.^[2] Already-prevalent communal violence between Iraqi Sunnis and Shia armed groups eventually escalated into a full-scale civil war.