LONDON, United Kingdom: London-based daily The Times published a report regarding the reconstruction of one of the most sacred sites in Islam, the holy Al-Askari shrine in Samarra.

The report said that balancing on wooden planks around the bombed stump of the golden dome in central Iraq a group of laborers is racing against the clock to rebuild the shrine as quickly as possible.

The dome was attacked in February 2006. Sixteen months after the first bombing terrorists returned to demolish the two golden minarets that flanked the ruins of the dome.

The ancient city of Samarra, once a thriving tourist destination for millions of pilgrims, became the most dangerous city in Iraq.

Usam Ghaidan, a project supervisor for Unesco, the heritage agency of the UN, said there was pressure to rebuild the shrine as quickly and as carefully as possible because of its religious, political and economic significance.

“Being a heritage site you need time, but time is not on our side,” Mr Ghaidan told The Times in a trailer parked inside a guarded compound that contains the shattered shrine, in the western quarter of Samarra.

Scores of architects, engineers and labourers have been clearing rubble since February. Working sixteen to eighteen-hour shifts seven days a week, the men seem proud to be part of such a high-profile task.

To prevent any further attacks all workers are carefully vetted and visitors are searched.

The al-Askari shrine, built about 1,000 years ago, contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams - Ali al-Hadi (AS) and his son Hasan al-Askari (AS).