Ramadan bomber kills 26 at Shi'ite mosque in Iraq (Reuters) Updated: 2005-10-06 09:00
A suicide bomber rammed a car into a Shi'ite mosque in central Iraq on
Wednesday, bringing down part of the building and killing at least 26
worshippers celebrating the start of the holy month of Ramadan, police said.
The attack in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, bore the hallmarks
of Sunni radicals waging holy war on Shi'ites ushered to power by the U.S.
invasion. It came after parliament, under U.S. and U.N. pressure, reversed a
ruling on next week's constitutional referendum to appease moderate Sunni
leaders.
Marines from 3rd Platoon, Company K, 3rd
Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, and soldiers of the Iraqi Security Forces
survey an area while patrol the streets of Haditha, Iraq while in search
of insurgents on Tuesday Oct. 4 2005.[AP] | Those
Sunni Arab politicians, however, said they might still urge a boycott of the
October 15 vote in protest at U.S. military operations launched this week
against al Qaeda guerrillas in western Iraq, which they said were causing
civilian casualties.
The bomber struck at dusk as the Shi'ite faithful gathered for Ramadan
prayers, a day after Sunni Muslims marked the same occasion. At least 87 people
were wounded and police said they feared the death toll of 26 could rise as
rescuers with a bulldozer continued to dig through the rubble overnight.
Hilla, the mainly Shi'ite capital of Babil province, has seen some of the
worst sectarian attacks, including a car bomb in February that killed 125
people. Shi'ite leaders have called on the long oppressed 60-percent majority
not to respond to attacks that some say are designed to spark a civil war.
A U.S. commander warned of a surge in violence in the run-up to the vote,
including attacks on key government sites.
In Baghdad, the Shi'ite-dominated National Assembly voted to reverse a
decision it made on Sunday which, by defining the word "voters" in different
ways in the same sentence of interim laws had tried to make it all but
impossible for minority Sunnis to veto the constitution by rejecting it in three
provinces.
|
| | Building blast kills one, injures 3 in Istanbul | | | | | Bali bombings kill 25, 100 injured | | | | | US millionaire ready for space trip | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|