Sunni enclave in Baghdad attacked

Baghdad: Gunmen rampaged through a Sunni enclave in a mainly Shiite district of Baghdad on Friday, killing up to 30 people and setting mosques and homes ablaze, police said.

Residents in the Sunni Arab neighbourhood of Hurriya district in northwestern Baghdad also spoke of two dozen or more dead, many of them worshippers killed when black-clad gunmen attacked four mosques with rocket-propelled grenades.

The attacks were in apparent reprisal for blasts that killed more than 200 people in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City, a stronghold of Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, who typically wear black clothing.

Imad Al Deen Al Hashemi, a university professor visiting Baghdad, said he was in the Nida Allah mosque when it was attacked during Friday prayers and 14 people were killed.

"It was attacked by RPGs and many people were killed and wounded. When the gunmen moved on to attack another mosque we evacuated the wounded," he said.

He said about 10 people were killed at the nearby Ahbab Mustafa mosque. Homes were set on fire, killing at least two children aged eight and 14 and a woman who died of smoke inhalation.

"I went to help one of the houses that was attacked. Two women and a man were wounded. I took away the women but when I went back to fetch the man he had been shot in the head and was dead," he said.

He said the Iraqi military were slow to come to the aid of residents, but by yesterday evening the neighbourhood was reported to be calm with Iraqi troops patrolling the area.

A civil servant who declined to be identified said he saw an attack by gunmen on a mosque close to his home. "We heard blasts and went outside. I saw gunmen fire rockets at the Al Muheiman mosque. Others were firing heavy machine guns," he said.