Twin bombing in Baqouba, Iraq
September 13, 2013
Attackers set off two roadside bombs outside the Baqouba mosque as worshippers were leaving a ceremony for both Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
Police said 30 people were killed and about 25 more wounded in the blasts at the Al-Salam mosque. The Sunni mosque, based in a city with a mixed population, was holding a joint prayer session with Shiites. The Sunni-majority city is also host to a substantial minority Kurdish population.
Baqouba, some 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of the capital Baghdad, is in one of Iraq's most restless regions. A series of attacks in and around the city this Tuesday killed 10 people. Two other attacks elsewhere in the Diyala province on Friday killed one person and injured several more.
There has been a sharp rise in violence in Iraq, which shares a border with Syria, in recent months. The United Nations reported that 1,057 people were killed there in July, the most in a single month in more than five years, and at least 916 civilians were killed in August. With more than 4,000 killed this year, the security situation is the worst since Iraq's sectarian war of 2006 and 2007.
msh/dr (AFP, dpa, Reuters)