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55 killed in suicide attack on mosques

Atul Aneja

Baghdad apartment collapses after car bombs explode outside prominent hotel nearby; six killed

— PHOTO: AP

ALL-ROUND DESTRUCTION: Rescuers and a U.S. military armoured vehicle gather at the site where two suicide car bombers detonated vehicles in Baghdad on Friday.

DUBAI: At least 55 persons were killed and scores injured when suicide bombers attacked two packed Shia mosques, raising fears about the deepening sectarian divide inside Iraq.

The bombers blew themselves up during Friday prayers when hundreds of worshippers had assembled. The explosions took place in Khanaqin in north-eastern Iraq. The town is close to the Iranian border and has a mixed population of Shias and Kurds. The two communities dominate the new U.S.-backed Iraqi Government, while the Sunnis, who have traditionally held power, have faced political marginalisation.

More casualties feared

"Two suicide bombers wearing explosive belts walked into the Greater and the Smaller Khanaqin mosques and blew themselves up," Diyala Provincial Council leader Ibrahim Hasan al-Bajalan was quoted as saying. Mr. Bajalan said the blast had destroyed the mosques completely and expressed fears that more bodies may be found under the rubble.

Earlier in the day, two car bombs exploded outside a prominent Baghdad hotel that has been popular with westerners. While the first vehicle smashed into the concrete security barrier, it was followed by another truck that tried to enter the hotel compound. While the explosions did not cause much damage to the hotel, they brought down a nearby apartment building where most of the casualties occurred. At least six persons were killed and 40 were injured.

Tensions between Sunnis and Shias have aggravated after U.S. security forces found 173 prisoners, mostly Sunnis, inside a building in an Interior Ministry building. Sunni leader Saleh Mutlaq alleged that the Shia-dominated Government was holding more than 1,100 prisoners at the Ministry, of which several had died due to torture.

AP reports:

At sunset, dozens of rescuers were still digging through the rubble of the three-storey Grand Khanaqin Mosque. As the men dug, 12-year-old Sarkhel Akram collected copies of the Koran, then she kissed them and put them away.

The suicide attacker walked into the mosque and detonated himself in the middle of a group of people, said Ali Abdullah who was in the congregation. He added that the suicide attacker's ``flesh could be seen on the walls of the mosque after the explosion.''

Troops attacked

Omar Saleh (73), said from his bed at Kalar Hospital that he was bowing in prayer when the bomb exploded. ``The roof fell on us and the place was filled with dead bodies''.

Also on Friday, militants attacked U.S. and Iraqi troops in western Iraq, setting off gunbattles that left 32 militants dead, a U.S. military statement said.

One Marine and an Iraqi soldier suffered minor injuries during the attack. Most of the fighting took place around a mosque in the centre of the town.

America's death toll rose Thursday as the U.S. military reported a U.S. Marine killed the day before in Haditha, 180 km northwest of Baghdad. An army soldier died on Thursday in a traffic accident near Beiji, 190 km north of Baghdad and a second soldier died in another accident near Balad, the command said.

In another setback for sectarian reconciliation, the leader of Iraq's largest Shia political party will not attend an Arab League meeting set for this weekend in Cairo to set the stage for a reconciliation conference of Iraqi groups, his spokesman said on Friday.

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