Global Arab Network | Iraq: Bombs kill 36 in Baghdad & Mosul

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Iraq: Bombs kill 36 in Baghdad & Mosul

Global Arab Network - - Adam Turner

Friday, 07 August 2009 15:09

A powerful car bomb exploded outside a mosque in the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers, killing at least 30 people and wounding 85 in northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said. While a series of bombs in Baghdad killed six pilgrims.

The mosque was used by members of the Turkmen minority in the mainly Muslim city, the police official said.

He said worshippers were walking to an annexe of the mosque during a condolence ceremony when the bombers detonated the explosives, which had been hidden in a car parked nearby.

"Thirty people were killed and and 72 wounded in the suicide car bomb attack," said a police official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"I was in the house when this explosion happened. I hurried to the mosque to search for my father in the ruins...I found him seriously wounded, and took him to hospital, but he died," said Khalil Qasim, 19, crying.

Mosul authorities urged citizens to donate blood and appealed for construction vehicles to lift debris trapping victims of the attack, which took place in Shreikhan, a majority Shi'ite Turkmen village just north of Mosul city.

Bombings and shootings are reported almost daily in Mosul.

The insurgency in Iraq has waned in the last 18 months, but insurgents have been able to hide out in the mountainous areas around Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, and have exploited divisions between Mosul's feuding Arabs and Kurds.

The dispute in the northern province of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, threatens to split the province and inflame tensions that could threaten Iraq's long-term stability.

"These bombings are an attempt to return Iraq to square one," said analyst and professor Hameed Fadhel.

"I expect these attacks to rise the closer we get to the elections. The coming months will be a very critical time for Iraq," he added, referring to national polls due in January.

Politicians are in the throes of discussing coalitions, and violence may make cross-sectarian alliances difficult.

In Baghdad, roadside bombs exploded as minibuses.

Roadside bombs struck two minibuses in separate incidents in the poor Baghdad of Sadr City and another roadside bomb struck a minibus in east Baghdad, a hospital source said, killing a total of six and wounding 24. (AFP, Reuters)

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