Hameed Rasheed/Associated Press

Debris covers the base of a destroyed minaret at the Askariya Shrine on June 13 in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra. Two minarets at the shrine were destroyed in the attack that was quickly blamed on al-Qaida. Last year, the shrine's Golden Dome was destroyed, triggering an increase in Sunni-Shiite violence. The Askariya Shrine is one of the most revered in Shiite Islam.

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BAGHDAD — Saboteurs blew up two minarets at a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra on June 13, a repeat of the 2006 attack that shattered its famous Golden Dome and unleashed a wave of retaliatory sectarian violence that still bloodies Iraq.

Sunni al-Qaida extremists were quickly blamed.

The assault on the Askariya Shrine, one of the holiest in Shiite Islam, immediately stirred fears of a new round of intra-Muslim bloodshed, and prompted the 30-member bloc of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to suspend its membership in Iraq's Parliament, threatening a deeper political crisis.

To ward off a surge of violence, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki quickly imposed an indefinite curfew on vehicle traffic and large gatherings in Baghdad. Before the curfew took hold, arsonists set fire to a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad, police said.

A Shiite shrine was also blown up north of Baghdad, while two Sunni mosques were bombed south of the capital, police said. One was destroyed, and the other lost its minaret.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on "believers to exercise self-restraint and avoid any vengeful act that would target innocent people or the holy places of others."

It wasn't clear how the attackers evaded the shrine's guards to mount the stunning operation, detonating the blasts around 9 a.m. and bringing down the two slender golden minarets that flanked the dome's ruins at the century-old mosque. No casualties were reported.

Policemen at the shrine were subsequently detained and will be questioned as part of the investigation, al-Maliki said. Later, the Interior Ministry said members of "a terrorist group" had been arrested and were being interrogated. The statement did not elaborate.

An official close to the prime minister, citing intelligence reports and speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said the bombing was likely the work of al-Qaida, whose militants have recently moved into Samarra from surrounding areas.

In a conference call with reporters, U.S. Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner was asked about unconfirmed reports of a skirmish among Iraqi security forces before the attack, which may have been somehow related to the bombing.

"It's unclear at what point relative to the explosions that happened, but that's exactly what the (Iraqi) investigation will build the best possible summary of," the U.S. military spokesman said.

In a nationally televised address, al-Maliki said he had ordered security forces to bolster protection of Iraq's other religious shrines and mosques.

His office also said he met with the U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker to ask that U.S. reinforcements be sent to Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, and that U.S. troops in the capital go on heightened alert.

A few hundred U.S. soldiers are stationed around Samarra to provide security, although they rarely enter the shrine's perimeter and leave protection of the mosque to Iraqi forces.

The U.S. command had no immediate comment on military moves. Crocker and Petraeus later released a statement calling the attack an "act of desperation" and "a deliberate attempt by al-Qaida to sow dissent and inflame sectarian strife among the people of Iraq."

Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, another U.S. military spokesman, said the command was "obviously very concerned about this, and our primary goal is to prevent any violence of the kind that broke out after the last bombing."

The carefully orchestrated 2006 explosion enraged Shiites, who ignored appeals for calm and attacked Sunni clerics and mosques. Nearly 140 people were killed the next day.

The powerful blasts shook Samarra, sending a cloud of dust into the air, said Imad Nagi, a store owner 100 yards from the shrine. "After the dust settled, I couldn't see the minarets anymore. So, I closed the shop quickly and went home," he said.

In the Baiyaa area of Baghdad, insurgents set fire to the Sunni Khudair al-Janabi mosque, police and witnesses said. A lone guard escaped, and the mosque was empty at the time.

In Khalis, 50 miles north of the capital, police said insurgents planted explosives inside the Shiite shrine of Imam Ali Kamal, completely destroying the building.

The reaction was swift in Shiite-dominated southern Iraq. Black banners were hoisted outside the Najaf residence of radical cleric al-Sadr, who called for three days mourning and peaceful demonstrations to mark the minarets' destruction and criticized the government for not doing enough to protect the site.