At least 30 killed in blasts at Baghdad Shiite mosques (Roundup)

Jul 31, 2009, 14:14 GMT

   Baghdad - At least 30 people were killed Friday in a series of attacks targeting five Shiite mosques in Baghdad as British troops were completing their withdrawal process from the war-torn country.

The blasts, which left at least 64 injured, came directly after Friday prayers. Police cordoned all areas around the mosques in al- Shaab, al-Zaafaraniya, al-Kahira and al-Kamaliya districts. Later, a fifth explosion happened near Diyala bridge in the capital's south.

According to the Voices of Iraq news agency, a car bomb blast near al-Shroufi mosque in the northern district of al-Shaab left the largest number of casualties - 15 civilians killed and 30 wounded.

'The mosques and shrines, all of them belonging to Shiite Muslims and mostly led in prayers by imams of the Sadrist Movement (who are loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr) were attacked by improvised explosive devices,' an official security source was quoted by the agency as saying.

Iraqi lawmaker Zainab al-Kanani warned that Iraqi security forces should be ready for such attacks ahead of the parliamentary elections next January.

'Iraq today is at a critical stage before the parliamentary elections, and we should expect such attacks that will be targeting certain figures. Yet, security bodies should be aware of this and adopt plans to prevent any breaches of security,' said al-Kanani, an MP for the the Sadrist bloc.

'These attacks, and others which have targeted markets and Christian places of worship over the past few days, are criminal acts caused by external bodies, and the Iraqi government must take firm positions against the countries proved to be involved in claiming the lives of dozens of Iraqis,' al-Kanani told the German Press Agency dpa.

She believes that those who stand behind these attacks 'want to drag Iraq back to square one, and sectarian wars'.

The attacks took place as the British soldiers' presence in the country officially ended, six years after the US-led invasion of the country and a month after US soldiers withdrew from cities and towns.

Earlier, police sources said that two policemen were killed Friday by a bomb targeting their patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

   Late Thursday, two people, a man and a woman, were killed when a gunman threw a grenade on a house in Ras al-Jada district, western Mosul, the source said, adding that the blast left a woman and her her 13-year-old boy wounded.

   Meanwhile four civilians were wounded Friday when a rocket hit a house in the southern port city of Basra.

   'The rocket was one of six Katyushas that targeted a military base of the Multi-National Force at the Basra International Airport,' a security source was quoted by the Voices of Iraq news agency as saying.

   However, he said nothing about any damage from the other five rockets targeting the base, which is located 25 kilometres northwest of the oil-rich city.

Violence has recently dropped significantly throughout Iraq, but attacks increased after the US withdrawal from the cities on June 30.