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Suicide attack on Iraqi Shi'ite mosque kills 11

Posted on: Friday, 16 September 2005, 07:57 CDT

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber blew himself up outside a Shi'ite mosque north of Baghdad on Friday, killing 11 and wounding 24, the latest attack in a three-day surge of violence that has killed more than 200 people.

The blast came two days after Iraq's al Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared an all-out war on the country's Shi'ite Muslim majority.

Iraqi police Captain Saed Ahmed said the bomb went off outside the Great Prophet mosque in Tuz Khurmatu, a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite town 160 km (100 miles) north of the capital, as worshippers were emerging from prayers on the Muslim holy day.

He said a Saudi wearing an explosives-laden belt, who was apparently working with the bomber, was arrested soon after.

Militants have frequently attacked Shi'ite mosques over the past 18 months in an apparent attempt to goad Iraq's Shi'ite majority into retaliation and spark a sectarian civil war with the Sunni Arab minority, once dominant under Saddam Hussein.

There was more violence in Baghdad, where gunmen shot dead two labourers and a government official in drive-by shootings.

Police said the gunmen, traveling in two cars, opened fire on a group of men near the Shi'ite area of Sadr City as they lined up to find jobs, killing two and wounding a dozen. Minutes later they shot and killed a transport ministry official.

Also in Sadr City, gunmen shot dead a Shi'ite prayer leader and wounded two relatives after following his car, police said.

South of Baghdad, a car bomber targeted a police convoy in the town of Hasswa, killing three police and wounding six. West of the capital, a roadside bomb killed four Iraqi troops.

The attacks followed two days of heavy bloodshed, including more than a dozen coordinated car bombings in Baghdad on Wednesday that killed about 150 people and wounded hundreds.

Wednesday was the deadliest day of bombings in Baghdad since the beginning of the U.S.-led war and underlined just how hard U.S. forces are finding it to maintain security in the capital and elsewhere more than 2-1/2 years after they invaded.

CIVIL WAR?

The campaign of attacks, many of them claimed by al Qaeda in Iraq came in response to a U.S.-Iraqi military offensive on the northern town of Tal Afar, for long a rebel stronghold.

Several thousand Iraqi troops, backed by U.S. armored units and warplanes, launched the assault on the town, near the Syrian border, more than two weeks ago. On Friday, an Iraqi officer said 95 percent of Tal Afar had been secured.

U.S. troops were letting residents who fled the fighting return to their homes, although only on foot, witnesses said.

A top U.S. military spokesman said Tal Afar marked just the beginning of what may be a new series of U.S.-backed offensives on rebel towns and cities designed to capture or kill Zarqawi and increase security ahead of a referendum next month when Iraqis will vote on a controversial proposed constitution.

Following Wednesday's violence, the Jordanian Zarqawi issued a recorded message on the Internet threatening an open war on Shi'ites, a move Iraqis fear could push the country closer to a full-blown civil war, with sectarian conflict already common.

However, President Jalal Talabani played down the threat of fighting among Iraq's Shi'ite Arab, Sunni Arab and Kurdish populations, telling reporters at the United Nations World Summit in New York that foreigners were responsible.

"We have no war among Iraqis," Talabani said. "We have some thousands of criminals who came from outside the country, fighting against our people, trying to kill civilians and innocent people."

Shi'ite religious leaders, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most senior Shi'ite cleric in Iraq, also insist their community will not be drawn into a civil war.

While foreign fighters have entered the country and many are believed to be aligned to Zarqawi, there are also many Iraqi nationalist insurgents, largely from the Sunni Arab minority, who have carried out attacks on Shi'ites. Shi'ite militias have also attacked and killed Sunnis in retaliation.

Talabani and other political leaders are hoping the draft constitution, drawn up principally by the Shi'ites and Kurds, who dominate the government, will draw the nation together and isolate guerrillas opposed to the political process.

The constitution, which some Sunni leaders say does not reflect their wishes for the country, is due to be put to a referendum on October 15. If two-thirds of voters in three or more of Iraq's 18 provinces vote "No," the document will be rejected.

In other developments, the U.S. military said a Marine was killed by a mortar attack on a base in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on Thursday, raising the number of troops to have died in Iraq since the invasion to 1,897. More than 13,000 have been wounded.

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny, Hiba Moussa and Aseel Kami in Baghdad, Aref Mohammed in Kirkuk, and Faris Mehdawi in Baquba)

Source: REUTERS

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