A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Shiite mosque packed with worshippers during today November 28 prayers in a town south of the Iraqi capital, killing nine people and wounding another 15, police said.
The blast ripped through the mosque in Musaib a day after Iraq’s parliament approved a controversial military pact that will allow US troops to remain in the country for another three years.
The mosque was filled with around 300 worshippers when the bomber hit, destroying doors and windows and filling the building with smoke, police Lieutenant Kadhim al-Shammari said.
Most of the wounded were taken to the general hospital in Musaib, 80 km south of Baghdad, but three seriously wounded people were taken for treatment in the nearby town of Hilla.
In July 2005 more than 70 people were killed at the same mosque when a suicide bomber detonated a truck loaded with explosives and cooking gas near the building, causing serious damage.
Iraq has seen dramatic improvements in security over the past year but certain regions still suffer from near-daily bombings and attacks.
Friday’s attack bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has carried out scores of massive bombings targeting Shiite civilians since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country.
US and Iraqi forces allied with local Sunni militias have largely succeeded in flushing Al-Qaeda fighters out of their former strongholds, but the group retains the ability to regularly carry out smaller attacks.
(With Inputs From agencies)
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