BERLIN, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The European Union on Wednesday strongly condemned the bombing of a sacred Shiite mosque in Iraq which was believed to stir up further sectarian violence.

    Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said in a statement that "the clear goal behind this serious act of aggression is to cause the sectarian violence in Iraq to escalate further and to spark ethnic-religious violence."

    The Iraqi government and people have to "do everything they can to put a stop to the violence and enable the various religious groups to co-exist peacefully," it said.

    "The perpetrators must be found and brought to justice in a trial conducted in accordance with the rule of law," it added.

    The Sunni insurgents in Iraq on Wednesday attacked the Al-Askari Shiite mosque in an apparent attempt to unleashed a wave of retaliatory sectarian violence that still plagues Iraq.