HOLY SAMARRA, Iraq: A year ago on Feb. 22, 2006 (Moharram 23), at 6.55 am, powerful terror explosions occurred at the sacred Al-Askariyain Shrine in the holy city of Samarra causing the holy golden dome to collapse and scattering its 72.000 pieces of gold on the ground.

The holy shrine remains closed, its golden dome still a mound of rubble and wires amid the wave of hatred that has made renovation work too dangerous to begin.

In connection with the anniversary, which was officially marked by the government on Moharram 23, clerics and politicians have stepped up calls for the shrine’s restoration.

In an interview in his heavily guarded office, Samarra's Mayor Mahmoud Khalef, a Sunni, said: "The people of Samarra want to rebuild the shrine as soon as possible … This kind of place is very important for all the Muslims in the world, not just Shiites."

"We still want to know what happened. Our city has taken care of the shrine for more than 1000 years. Nobody dared to touch it. Had anyone thought about how it will affect us," a Sunni Iraqi in Samarra wondered aloud.

The Askariyain shrine contains the holy graves of the 10th and 11th imams -- Ali An-Naqi Al-Hadi (peace be upon him) and his son Hassan Al-Askari (peace be upon him). Both are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his holy progeny).

The shrine also is near the place where the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, known as the "hidden imam," disappeared.

The shrine compound is largely intact with the blue and yellow arched entrance and a nearby dome as beautiful as ever -- guarded by about 60 Federal Protection Service forces and 25 local Iraqi police who keep watch on the perimeter, according to city officials.

Vendors sell clothes and stuffed animals outside the tiled walls, and the aroma from the tea being brewed at a nearby cart wafts through the air.

But the tall wooden door under the arches is locked, and the rubble-strewn dome that now barely towers above it has been left a pile of dirt and wires with just a few golden tiles peeking out to offer a hint of its former splendor.

"We cried with blood rather than just tears on that day, and what hurts us a lot is that the government has not done anything yet to rebuild the dome," said Yassin Abdul-Amir, a 44-year-old taxi driver in Baghdad. "The attack shows the hatred in the hearts of these extremists toward us."

Iraq's most powerful politician Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim said: "The fact that the two shrines have been left for a year in this tragic condition is evidence of our predicament in Iraq."

National Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said an initial $50 million has been set aside for the project, and the Baghdad-Samarra highway is expected to be adequately secure within the next two months.