Accessibility links

Breaking News

Suicide Bomber Kills 28 in Baghdad Mosque


Security personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack inside the Umm al-Qura mosque in Baghdad, August 28, 2011
Security personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack inside the Umm al-Qura mosque in Baghdad, August 28, 2011

Iraqi officials say a suicide bomber has blown himself up inside the largest Sunni mosque in Baghdad, killing at least 28 people and wounding 37 others during special prayers for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Interior Ministry officials said the blast took place late Sunday inside the blue-domed Um al-Qura mosque in the Iraqi capital. They said Sunni lawmaker Khalid al-Fahdawi, a representative from western Anbar Province, is among the dead.

No group immediately claimed responsibly for the attack, which came just days before the end of Ramadan.

At least four more people died in other violence Sunday.

Violence has decreased in Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have expressed concern about Iraq's ability to handle security after U.S. forces withdraw at the end of the year.

In the northern city of Mosul, an explosive device attached to a police car killed a policeman and wounded four others, while in the ethnically mixed city of Baquba, militants killed three people in a car at a fake checkpoint.

In Baghdad, two additional bomb attacks wounded at least four people. And a fifth bomb attack wounded two people in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, some 175 kilometers north of Baghdad.

XS
SM
MD
LG