WORLD> Middle East
Bombs targeting Shi'ite Muslims kill 44 in Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-08 00:25

MOSUL, Iraq: A suicide car bomber killed 38 people as they left a Shi'ite Muslim mosque just outside the volatile northern Iraqi city of Mosul, officials said on Friday, while a series of bombs in Baghdad killed six Shi'ite pilgrims.

Bombs targeting Shi'ite Muslims kill 44 in Iraq
Iraqi policemen secure the scene of a road side bomb blast that hit a mini bus carrying Shi'ite pilgrims in Sadr City, in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Aug 7, 2009.  [Agencies]
Police said 95 people were wounded in the suicide bombing, one of several attacks in recent weeks targeting Shi'ite religious gatherings. A week ago a series of blasts outside Shi'ite mosques in Baghdad killed 31 people.

Sunni Islamist militants such as al Qaeda, who consider Shi'ites heretics, are often blamed for such attacks.

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"I was in the house when this explosion happened. I hurried to the mosque to search for my father in the ruins...I found him seriously wounded, and took him to hospital, but he died," said Khalil Qasim, 19, crying.

Mosul authorities urged citizens to donate blood and appealed for construction vehicles to lift debris trapping victims of the attack, which took place in Shreikhan, a majority Shi'ite Turkmen village just north of Mosul city.

Bombings and shootings are reported almost daily in Mosul.

The insurgency in Iraq has waned in the last 18 months, but insurgents have been able to hide out in the mountainous areas around Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, and have exploited divisions between Mosul's feuding Arabs and Kurds.

The dispute in the northern province of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, threatens to split the province and inflame tensions that could threaten Iraq's long-term stability.

"There are parties that seek to create chaos inside Mosul by dragging Iraq into sectarian fighting," Nineveh's governor, Atheel al-Nujaifi, said.

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