TWO minarets of a revered Shiite shrine in the northern Iraqi town of Samarra have collapsed after being blown up by insurgents, a top official has said.
The tall structures at the Golden Mosque came down at around 9am local time (3pm AEST), according to an Agence France Presse correspondent who reached the site shortly after the blasts.
Sheikh Saleh al-Haidiri, head of the Shiite endowment administrative body responsible for shrines in Iraq, said the minarets were blown up by "terrorists".
On February 22, 2006, alleged al-Qaeda militants bombed the shrine in an attack which triggered brutal nationwide Shiite and Sunni sectarian clashes that are still continuing.
Since then the shrine has been heavily guarded by Iraqi forces.
The Iraqi interior ministry has said it is "looking into these reports".
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