Car Bombs Martyr 23 People at Iraqi Mosques

Local Editor

A series of car bombs near mosques targeting worshippers attending weekly prayers martyred at least 23 people Friday.

The attacks were the latest in spectacular assaults staged by insurgents seeking to undermine the government's efforts to achieve security across the country.
The blasts struck within an hour of each other in the Baghdad neighborhoods of Binook, Qahira, Zafraniyah and Jihad, as well as in an area of southern city of Kirkuk.

In the first of four explosions in Baghdad, a parked car exploded in the western Jihad neighborhood, killing seven worshippers and wounding 25, a police officer said. Another police officer said four people were killed and nearly 20 were wounded in a bombing in the eastern Qahira neighborhood. Three people died and 15 were wounded in the eastern Zafaraniyah district while yet another car bomb killed five people and wounded 14 in the northeastern Binook neighborhood.
Three health officials confirmed the causality figures. All officials in Baghdad spoke on condition of anonymity.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, 290 kilometers north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into a group of worshippers as they were leaving a mosque after Friday prayers, killing three people and wounding up to 70.
"I was praying inside the husseiniyah during Friday prayers," said Salim Aziz al-Bayati, a worshipper who was wounded. "Then, all of a sudden, a great, horrible explosion happened, and the roof fell on our heads."

Also wounded was Mohsen al-Battat, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Husseini al-Sistani, who had been leading the prayers.
Bayati continued: "I saw the imam [Battat] was lying on the floor, and blood was on everyone's bodies. When they [paramedics] were taking me away, I saw flames covering the husseiniyah, as well as nearby houses and cars."
In Baghdad's Qahira neighborhood, an AFP reporter described seeing pools of blood and massive damage to nearby cars, houses and shops.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org