By DPA
Baghdad : Reprisal attacks between Shiites and Sunnis continued Saturday as gunmen clad as police commandos attacked a Sunni mosque in Basra Saturday.
A witness told the Independent News Agency: "We heard a huge sound of explosion, early Saturday, and rushed to see the al-Ashra al-Mubashra mosque blown up."
The mosque, which lies in al-Shamshomiyah area in central Basra, suffered severe damage, according to local people.
A curfew had reportedly been imposed Friday in the predominantly Shia city after the 7th-century tomb of Sahabi (companion of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad) Talha bin Obaid Ellah was bombed.
The bombing enraged Sunnis. It destroyed large portions of the holy site, which acts as a marqad (holy tomb) and a mosque, in addition to damaging its minaret and four domes.
Friday's and Saturday's bombings of Sunni mosques were evidently in response to Wednesday's attack on the minarets of one of the holiest Shia religious sites in the northern city of Samarra.
Extremists there blew up the two towers of the Mosque of Imams Hassan al-Askari and Ali al-Hadi, destroying them.
A previous attack in February 2006 on the Golden Mosque, which contains the tombs of two of Shia's most revered imams making it a major pilgrimage site, unleashed a wave of sectarian violence.
The Golden Mosque contains relics of the imams Hassan al-Askari and of Ali al-Hadi who lived in the 9th century and are highly revered by Shias.
Meanwhile, the Association of Muslim Scholars, the highest Sunni Authority in Iraq, published a report Saturday claiming that at least 20 mosques were targeted since last week's Samarra bombing.
"Death squads and sectarian militias backed by the US military continued with their preset plan to destroy and bomb mosques, marqads, and worship houses in different areas in Iraq," said the report.
Sunni mosques in Baghdad, Hilla, Basra and Baquba were said to have suffered the worst damage, according to the report.