Region | Iraq
19 killed as suicide bombers strike at Baghdad mosques
Suicide bombers targeted Shiite worshippers as they left morning prayers on Thursday at two Baghdad mosques, killing 19 people and injuring 50 others, police said.
- Agencies
- Published: 10:12 October 2, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
Baghdad: Baghdad: Suicide bombers struck two Shiite mosques in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens during celebrations marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
To the north, suspected Shiite militiamen gunned down six members of a Sunni family, including women and children, police reported.
Those attacks occurred four days after a series of explosions killed 32 people and wounded nearly 100 in Shiite areas of Baghdad, raising fears that al-Qaida in Iraq is trying to provoke Sunni-Shiite reprisal killings now that the last of the American "surge" troops have left the country.
In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives about 20 yards from a mosque in Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad. The blast killed 14 people, including three Iraqi soldiers, and wounded 28, police said.
In the other attack in the capital, a suicide bomber who appeared to be in his late teens detonated his explosive belt as worshippers were leaving the Rasoul mosque in the eastern New Baghdad district.
Ten people died and 24 were wounded, police and officials at al-Kindi and Ibn al-Nasif hospitals said. The dead included a guard who blocked the attacker from entering the mosque, police said.
The Iraqi army said 17 people were killed in the two blasts. But area hospitals said that figure did not include victims who died later from their wounds.
Horrific scenes
The attacker approached the mosque and set off the explosion as a suspicious guard tried to keep him from entering. Police officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.
A witness to the Zafaraniyah attack said he saw a white car speed toward the mosque and then heard a huge explosion that sparked a fire and heavy smoke.
Ammar Hashim, 25, who runs a car parts shop nearby, rushed to the site and saw "a damaged and burned Humvee with dead and burned bodies and many injured people crying out in pain.
"Pools of blood and the smell of burned flesh was everywhere and I saw a man of about 70 bleeding and lying on the ground from injuries," said Hashim, whose brother was also injured by broken glass in his shop. Hashim said cars began to rush people to a nearby hospital before ambulances arrived.
The faithful at both mosques are supporters of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, the country's top Shiite cleric.
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