Iraq suicide bomb at Shia mosque kills 42
24 January, 2013
TUZ KHURMATU: A suicide bomber made his way into a Shia mosque north of Baghdad and blew himself up in the middle of a funeral on Wednesday, killing 42 people and leaving corpses scattered across the floor. The attack, the deadliest in six months, is likely to heighten tensions as Iraq grapples with a political crisis and more than a month of protests in Sunni-majority areas that have hardened opposition to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. No group claimed responsibility, but terrorists often launch attacks in a bid to destabilise the government and push Iraq back towards the sectarian violence that blighted it from 2005 to 2008. The bomber struck at the Sayid al-Shuhada mosque in Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad, and targeted the funeral of a relative of a politician who was shot dead a day earlier. "Corpses are on the ground of the Husseiniyah (Shiite mosque)," said Tuz Khurmatu Mayor Shallal Abdul. "The suicide bomber managed to enter and blow himself up in the middle of the mourners." End.
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