AMMAN, Feb 22: Western and Muslim leaders urged Iraqis to exercise restraint after Wednesday’s bombing in Samarra of a historic shrine.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw condemned the bombing as a ‘despicable attempt to ignite civil strife’ and disrupt efforts to form a new government.

“This criminal and sacrilegious act follows a series of recent attacks on innocent Iraqis,” Mr Straw said at the Foreign Office in London.

The minister had just completed a visit to Iraq on Tuesday aimed at persuading the nation’s feuding religious and ethnic groups to form a national unity government, two months after national elections.

“It is a blatant and despicable attempt by terrorists to try to ignite civil strife and disrupt the process of forming a new Iraqi government,” Mr Straw said.

“All of us have to appreciate the scale of the anguish caused by the destruction of the golden dome of this most important and historic site.”

France also denounced the bombing. “France steadfastly condemns the attack this morning in Iraq on the mausoleum in Samarra,” French foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told reporters. In Jordan, King Abdullah warned that the bombing ‘is aimed at sowing and fanning sectarian strife among the Iraqi people’.

“What happened is an attempt to disrupt the efforts being made to enhance national unity ... rebuild the nation and achieve a prosperous future for Iraq,” the king said in a message to Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani.

Iran also expressed outrage over the attack. “The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns the criminal, savage, un-Islamic and inhuman act carried out by the terrorist groups,” foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.—AFP