A suicide bomber struck a Shiite mosque during Friday prayers in Baghdad,
killing at least 10 people and wounding 20, police said, as violence persisted
in the capital despite a massive security operation aimed at restoring order.
Iraqi soldiers secure an empty street
in central Baghdad. [AFP] |
Police Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said the attacker blew himself up at the Buratha
mosque in northern Baghdad.
Mahmoud said the bomber was wearing an explosive belt, but Jalal Eddin
al-Sagheer, the preacher at the mosque and one of the country's leading
politicians, however, said the explosives were inside a worshipper's shoes.
He said guards first arrested a suspected attacker after discovering
explosives as they were searching shoes left outside the mosque. The bomber blew
himself up when confronted by the guards as they began searching worshippers
with shoes beside them inside the mosque, al-Sagheer said.
The streets of Baghdad were largely absent of cars due to a four-hour driving
ban implemented to prevent violence during traditional Islamic prayers held
every Friday.
Iraqi authorities also launched a massive security operation on Wednesday
that included 75,000 troops fanning out on the streets of Baghdad, an extended
curfew -- from 8.30 p.m. until dawn -- and a weapons ban.
It was the second time the mosque has been hit in just over two months. The
Buratha mosque also was attacked during Friday prayers on April 7, when four
suicide bombers, including a woman, set off their explosives, killing at least
85 worshippers as they left the mosque after the main weekly religious service.
The U.S. military blamed that attack on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida in
Iraq leader who was killed last week in a U.S. airstrike. The terror group
issued a statement Tuesday vowing to avenge al-Zarqawi's death and threatening
horrific attacks "in the coming days."
The U.S has said Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian with ties to Osama bin
Laden's al-Qaida network, has taken over from al-Zarqawi as head of al-Qaida in
Iraq. Al-Masri apparently is the man that the terrorist group identified in a
Web posting last week as its new leader -- Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, a nom de
guerre, said Caldwell.
The military showed a picture of al-Masri -- who was named in a most-wanted
list issued in February 2005 by the U.S. command and who now has a $200,000
bounty on his head — wearing a traditional white Arab headdress.
