Rare bomb attack in Iraqi Kurdish capital kills 26
Kurdish security forces react after a bomb attack in the city of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, about 350 km (217 miles) north of Baghdad, September 29, 2013. REUTERS/Azad LashkariAt least 26 people are reported to have died after a suicide bomber targeted mourners at a Shia Muslim mosque south of Baghdad, according to police and a doctor.
Sunday\’s blast, which collapsed the roof of Al-Hussein Mosque in the Musayyib area, also wounded 50 people.
It came just hours after at least 11 people were killed and dozens injured in a double suicide-car bombing in Erbil, the capital of Iraq\’s autonomous Kurdish region, an area usually spared the violence plaguing other parts of the country.
Authorities said Sunday\’s attack began with a suicide bomber detonating a car near the entrance to the Interior Ministry of Iraqi Kurdistan in the provincial capital of Irbil. Minutes later, a second vehicle exploded and gunfire erupted at the scene.
Iraqi Kurdistan\’s Radio Nawa said the al-Qaida in Iraq militant group claimed responsibility for the bombings.
The station also said 62 people were wounded, 42 of them security personnel and the rest civilians.
In other violence, Iraqi police said a suicide bomber killed at least 25 people in a Shi\’ite mosque in the town of Musayeb, south of Baghdad. The victims were mourning the death of a man killed earlier.
Sectarian attacks on majority Shi\’ites and minority Sunnis have escalated across Iraq in recent months.
Iraqi Kurdistan has an autonomous government with its own security forces, who have largely shielded the region from terrorist and sectarian attacks that have plagued the rest of Iraq for years.
Source: Agencies
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