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82 die in attacks on Iraq mosques, hotel
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-19 09:22

Suicide bombers struck in eastern Iraq and the capital on Friday, killing at least 74 Shiite worshippers near the Iranian border and eight Iraqis at a hotel — the second attack against a compound housing Western media and contractors in less than a month.

At sunset, hours after the nearly simultaneous bombings of two mosques in the border town of Khanaqin, dozens of people were still searching for relatives and friends. Others collected shredded copies of the Muslim holy book, the Quran.


A wounded Iraqi walks on debris after two car bombs exploded near a Baghdad hotel. At least 67 worshippers were killed in suicide attacks on two Shiite mosques in eastern Iraq near the border with Iran, hours after suicide bombers killed six people outside a Baghdad hotel. [AP]

One survivor, Omar Saleh, said he was on his knees bowing in prayer when the bomb exploded at the Grand Mosque.

"The roof fell on us and the place was filled with dead bodies," Saleh, 73, said from his hospital bed.

The bloodshed came as the United Nations' top human rights official added her voice to calls for an international inquiry into allegations that Iraq's U.S.-backed government tortures and abuses prisoners — including Sunni Arab insurgents.

The attack in Khanaqin was ominous because it took place in a largely peaceful area about six miles from Iran. So few incidents have occurred there Iraqi authorities believe they can soon take over security responsibilities from the U.S.-led coalition. That assumption has now been called into question.

It was the deadliest attack since Sept. 29, when three suicide car bombers struck in the mostly Shiite town of Balad just north of Baghdad, killing at least 99 people.

On Friday, the suicide bombers wandered into the Sheik Murad mosque and the Grand Mosque during noon prayers and detonated explosives strapped to their bodies, police and survivors said. The blasts ripped down part of the Grand Mosque's roof and heavily damaged the other place of worship.

Salem Ali Mohammed, 32, said he was in the Grand Mosque's washroom when he heard a strong explosion. "I thought a rocket had hit the mosque," he said. "I walked toward the prayer room and saw that the ceiling had collapsed and dead bodies were everywhere."

Kamran Ahmed, director of the Khanaqin General Hospital, said 74 people were killed and at least 100 were wounded at the mosques, which are more than a half-mile apart in the largely Kurdish town about 90 miles northeast of Baghdad. American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division sent medical specialists and supplies to the town.

In Baghdad, the attack on the Hamra hotel began about 8:12 a.m. when a white van exploded along the concrete blast wall protecting the compound, blowing a hole in the barrier. Less than a minute later, a water tanker packed with explosives plowed through the breach in an apparent bid to reach the hotel buildings.
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