Bomb Blasts Kill 79 at Major Shiite Mosque in Iraq

Posted on Apr 7, 2006

AP / Assad Muhsin

Iraqi men transport the body of a blast victim at a mosque Friday, April 7, in Baghdad. Explosions rocked the Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad after religious services Friday, killing at least 79 people and wounding 160. It was the deadliest single blast this year, and the second mosque explosion in as many days. On Thursday, a car bomb exploded about 300 yards from the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, the most sacred shrine in Iraq for Shiite Muslims. At least 10 were killed.

Suicide bombers dressed in women’s clothes caused the single deadliest blast this year—at a religious bastion of a powerful Shiite party.

It’s the second major bomb attack against Shiites in two days. Just Thursday,  a car bomb killed 10 people outside the most sacred shrine in Iraq for Shiites.

(It was the bombing of another major shrine, in Samarra in February, that ignited the current round of violence, which has left over 1,000 dead.)

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AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Suicide attackers wearing women’s robes blew themselves up Friday in a Shiite mosque, killing 79 people and wounding more than 160, police said. It was the deadliest single attack in Iraq this year and the second major bombing of a Shiite target in as many days.

Police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said the blasts were caused by two suicide attackers wearing black abayas at the Buratha mosque, which is affiliated with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main Shiite party.

Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, the preacher at the mosque and one of the country’s leading politicians, said there were three assailants. One came through the women’s security checkpoint and blew up first, he said. Another raced into the mosque’s courtyard while a third came to his office before detonating his bomb, said al-Sagheer, who was not injured.

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