Iraqi Insurgents Blow Top Off Historic Monument

Suspected insurgents yesterday blew up the top of a 9th-century Islamic minaret which is one of Iraq's most important heritage sites.

The blast punched a two-metre hole in the Malwiya, a spiralling yellow sandstone architectural wonder towering 50 metres (170ft) over Samarra, a flashpoint town north of Baghdad.

For centuries pilgrims and tourists have climbed the stairway winding up to the pinnacle. Built by Abbasid Caliph al-Motawakel in AD852, the structure appears on Iraq's 250-dinar bill.

Witnesses said the explosion had happened shortly after two men descended from the top. A US military spokesman blamed insurgents and said there had been no coalition troops at the site yesterday.

Residents said American snipers and Iraqi troops sometimes occupied the minaret. US-led troops took Samarra from insurgents in October. Last year a mortar blew a small hole in the tower.

Iraq's fledgling security forces were boosted yesterday when influential Arab Sunni scholars and clerics urged their flock to join the police and army, reversing previous calls to boycott cooperation with the state.

The 64-strong group told Sunnis they had a duty to prevent the country from falling into "the hands of those who have caused chaos, destruction and violated the sanctities". But the message warned against helping foreign troops to fight Iraqis.

Meanwhile, a US military court in Weisbaden, Germany, dismissed from the army a captain accused of "playing god" in the killing of a wounded Iraqi, but did not impose a prison sentence.

Rogelio Maynulet, 30, was found guilty of assault with intent to commit voluntary manslaughter, which carries a 10-year maximum sentence.

He maintained that he had committed a "mercy killing" because he wanted to end a dying man's suffering. The defence had claimed that the shooting last May, near Kufa, was an "honourable" killing.

The prosecution had sought a three-year jail sentence, arguing that this would send a strong message to other US troops.