At least nine people were killed and 26 wounded when a car bomb exploded outside a crowded Shi’ite mosque in Baghdad during Friday prayers, interior ministry and hospital sources said.
”According to the latest toll, there are nine dead and 26 wounded,” said an interior ministry source.
A police official had earlier said five were killed and 25 hurt in the attack at Al-Subeih mosque, in the south-east of the capital.
”Some witnesses said they saw a bomber in the car, a white BMW, but we are checking these reports,” he added.
Two houses were also damaged in the attack, the source at the ministry said.
Shi’ites, who form a majority in the country, won control of Parliament in January’s elections and are a target of choice for the largely Sunni-based insurgency.
Two car bombs last month killed at least 10 Iraqis near Shi’ite shrines, but the bloodiest attack to date against the community was in Hilla, a Shi’ite farming town south of Baghdad, that killed 118 people in February. — Sapa-AFP