05 May 2006

Iraq: Mosque bombing kills at least 25

By Ali Al-fatlawi
The Associated Press, 06 October 2005

HILLAH, IRAQ -- A bomb exploded at the entrance of a Shiite Muslim mosque in this city south of Baghdad, as hundreds of worshipers gathered for prayers on the first day of Ramadan and for the funeral of a man killed in an earlier bombing. At least 25 people were killed and 87 were wounded.

The explosion hit the Husseiniyat Ibn al-Nama mosque, ripping through strings of light bulbs and green and red flags hung around the entrance to celebrate the start of the holy month. The mosque's facade was ravaged, shops nearby were destroyed and several cars were damaged.

The blast went off at 6 p.m. as hundreds of men had gathered at the mosque, located in the center of Hillah, for prayers before returning home to eat the meal that ends the day's sunrise-to-sunset fast.

Others were there for the funeral of a restaurant owner who was killed by a bomb that ripped through his restaurant Monday.

It was the second major bomb attack in a week in Hillah, a favorite target of insurgents in southern Iraq, the heartland of the Shiite majority.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaida in Iraq, one of the country's deadliest militant groups, has called for stepped up attacks during Ramadan and has declared an all-out war on Iraq's Shiites. Al-Zarqawi's stated goal is to incite civil war between Shiites and Sunnis.

The blast also was the latest in a string of attacks by Sunni-led insurgents who have targeted Shiite Muslims in the lead-up to the Oct. 15 referendum on Iraq's draft constitution. Insurgents have vowed to derail the vote.

The explosion, which police believed was caused by a planted explosive, detonated on the sidewalk next to the mosque's entrance.

"While I was praying, I heard a huge blast and realized parts of the mosque were crumbling over my head," said one survivor, Asaad Jassem, 35. "Some parts of the mosque's ceiling fell onto worshipers. I saw people on the ground bleeding."

Shiite holiday

Haj Muhammad Abdullah, a 45-year-old shopkeeper, had closed his store to come pray.

"We heard an explosion and then I fainted. I woke up when policemen splashed water over my face, and I saw all the damage, the martyrs and the wounded," he said.

"How could they do that?" he cried, referring to the attackers.

Wednesday was the first day of Ramadan for Iraq's Shiite majority. Sunnis began marking the month a day earlier.

The attack came five days after a car bomb exploded in a crowded market, killing 10 people, including three women and two children in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad. A day earlier, a string of car bombs hit in Balad, a Shiite town north of Baghdad, killing around 100 people.

On Feb. 28, a suicide car bomber targeted Shiite police and national guard recruits in Hillah, killing 125 people -- the deadliest single bombing of the insurgency.

Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops are waging two major offensives to try to put down Al-Qaida in Iraq in its strongholds in the mostly Sunni northwest.

Moderate Sunni Arab leaders are campaigning against the constitution, trying to defeat it at the polls because they say it will fragment Iraq into Shiite and Kurdish mini-states in the south and north, leaving Sunnis in a weakened central zone.

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Citation: Ali Al-fatlawi. "Iraq: Mosque bombing kills at least 25," The Associated Press, 06 October 2005.
Original URL: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1762/5653925.html
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