Iraq Mosque Suicide Bombing, Attacks Martyr 39

Local Editor

A suicide bombing against a mosque as worshippers streamed out was the bloodiest of attacks across Iraq that left at least 39 people martyred Wednesday, officials said.

Dozens were wounded in the violence, and locals exacted a grim revenge on one man suspected of being a second attacker in the mosque bombing, which comes amid Iraq's worst bloodshed since 2008.
Authorities have sought to tackle the unrest with a string of measures ranging from massive security operations to implementing tight traffic restrictions in the capital in a bid to stem the number of car bombs.

But attacks have continued to hit much Iraq, with over 4,000 people already killed in violence this year.
The worst of Wednesday's violence struck the mixed north Baghdad neighborhood of Waziriyah, where a suicide bomber blew himself up at a mosque at around 6:40 p.m. as worshippers were exiting following evening prayers.

At least 30 people were killed and 55 others wounded, security and hospital sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Several nearby shop fronts were also badly damaged by the blast.

Immediately after the bombing, locals spotted a man they suspected was about to blow himself up as well, and gunned him down before setting his body ablaze, the sources said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack against the Tamimi Mosque, but militants linked to al-Qaeda frequently mostly announce responsibility for such attacks.
Violence elsewhere in the country killed nine people, including four in the restive northern province of Nineveh.

In three separate attacks in the province, which remains one of Iraq's least stable, gunmen killed three people, among them a school principal who was shot dead at his house.
And in provincial capital Mosul, a magnetic "sticky bomb" attached to a car killed another person.
Three attacks in and around the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk left two dead, including a senior security official.

A sticky bomb killed one person in south Baghdad, and another died in a roadside bombing in a town on the capital's southern outskirts, while a gunman on a motorbike killed a imam near the southern port city of Basra.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team