A bomb exploded at the entrance of a Shi’ite Muslim mosque south of Baghdad on Wednesday as worshippers gathered for prayers ahead of the breaking of the fast on the first day of Ramadan, killing at least 13 people and wounding 40, police and hospital officials said.
The explosion hit the Ibn al-Nama mosque in Hillah, a Shi’ite town that has been the scene of frequent deadly insurgent attacks.
Police were trying to determine whether Wednesday’s blast was caused by a car packed with explosives or a bomb left at the scene, said police spokesperson Captain Muthanna Khaled Ali.
The blast killed at least 10 people and wounded 40, said Ali and emergency doctor Ibrahim Nafi.
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 95km south of Baghdad.
Wednesday was the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan for Iraq’s Shi’ite majority. Sunnis began marking the month a day earlier.
When the blast hit just before 6pm, the faithful had come to the Ibn al-Nama mosque for prayers before returning home to eat the meal that ends the day’s sunrise to sunset fast, Ali said.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, one of the country’s deadliest militant groups, has called for stepped-up attacks during Ramadan — and it previously declared an all-out war on Iraq’s Shi’ites. The Hillah bombing was the latest in a string of attacks by Sunni-led insurgents that have targeted Shi’ite Muslims.
Thousands of United States troops are currently waging two major offensives to try to put down al-Qaeda in its strongholds in the mostly Sunni north-west of Iraq.
Hillah is one of the most insurgent-troubled towns of the Shi’ite heartland in the south. On February 28, a suicide car bomber hit Shi’ite police and national guard recruits in Hillah, killing 125 people. — Sapa-AP