 A leading Sunni cleric called for the country's religious and ethnic groups to take a stand against violence as Iraq endured a third consecutive day of sectarian killings - the worst, a suicide car bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed at least 12 worshippers as they left Friday prayers.
The bombing in Tuz Khormato was just the latest suicide attack flowing from Al-Qaeda in Iraq's declaration of all-out war against Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority. Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror group said it was taking revenge for a joint Iraqi-U.S. offensive against its stronghold in Tal Afar, the northwestern city near Syria. With more than 20 people killed on Friday, the death toll over the past three days surpassed 200, with more than 600 wounded. Sheikh Mahmoud al-Sumaidaei, a leading Sunni cleric whose group is linked to the country's insurgency, criticized militants for targeting civilians.
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He called for Iraq's religious and ethnic groups to take a stand against further bloodshed. "I call for meeting ... of all the country's religious and political leaders to take a stand against the bloodshed," Sumaidaei said during his sermon at west Baghdad's Um al-Qura Sunni Mosque. "We don't need others to come across the border and kill us in the name of defending us," he declared in a reference to foreign fighters who have joined the insurgency under the banner of Al-Qaeda. "We reject the killing of any Iraqi."
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In Tuz Khormato, 210 kilometers north of Baghdad, authorities said the attacker detonated his explosives-packed car as worshippers flowed out of the Hussainiyat al-Rasoul al-Azam Mosque, a Shiite Turkmen place of worship. Police said 12 were killed and 23 wounded in the blast that also destroyed 10 shops and eight cars. Police Captain Mohammad Ahmad said his men exchanged gunfire with another bomber, before capturing him as he fled toward a second mosque. The man, who appeared to be in his early 20s, was wearing a bomb belt and said he was from Saudi Arabia. |