Suicide bomber kills nine at Baghdad mosque, sources say

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which wounded at least 25 others.

April 22, 2016 04:53 pm | Updated September 09, 2016 12:31 am IST - Baghdad

A suicide bomber killed at least nine people when he detonated an explosive vest after Friday prayers at a Shia Muslim mosque in southwestern Baghdad, police and hospital sources said.

A second suicide attacker at the mosque in al-Radwaniya district was shot and killed by security forces before he could set off his explosives, the police sources said.

A separate bomb went off on Friday in the district of Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, killing two and wounding nine, security and medical sources said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which wounded at least 25 others, but Islamic State militants battling government forces in the north and west have regularly targeted Shia areas in the capital.

The rise of the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim group has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq, mostly between Shias and Sunnis, that emerged after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The Iraqi government has retaken several major cities from the Islamic State in the past year and slowly pushed them back towards the Syrian border. The authorities have said they want to recapture the northern city of Mosul this year, but Iraqi officials privately question whether that is possible.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.