Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi Army checkpoint in northern Iraq yesterday, killing 12 soldiers and wounding one, in one of the deadliest single attacks in months against the US-trained Iraqi forces. In more bloodshed that has pushed Iraq close to sectarian civil war, bomb and mortar rounds aimed at mosques killed 14 people in and near Baghdad, while in the south gunmen sprayed a minibus with machine-gunfire, killing five Shiite pilgrims.Gunmen in four cars and armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns attacked an army checkpoint in the town of Rashad near Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Anwar Hamad Ameen said. “This area is a stronghold for Takfirists and terrorists,” Ameen told Reuters.
A bomb struck a Sunni mosque in Baghdad after Friday prayers, killing 14 people and wounding five, defying a driving ban aimed at preventing such attacks, while mortars barraged a Shiite mosque north of the capital. The attack against the Sunni mosque occurred about 2 p.m. as worshippers were leaving after religious services in northern Baghdad, police Lt. Mohammed Khayoun said, adding that the bomb was planted near the door of the mosque.