At least 12 killed, 74 injured in suicide bombing in Iraq (Roundup)

Oct 16, 2009, 14:34 GMT

   Baghdad - At least 11 people were killed and 70 injured Friday in a suicide bombing that targeted a Shiite mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, according to witnesses.

   A suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt during the Friday prayers in al-Taqwa mosque in Tel Afar area in Mosul city, killing himself and 10 others, witnesses added.

Sheikh Abdul-Sattar Hussein, the imam of the mosque and a judge in the Tel Afar court was among the killed. Most of the victims were Shiite citizens of Turkmen ethnicity.

   Military and police forces cordoned off the scene, as civil defence forces and ambulances started taking the injured to the nearest hospitals.

  Some 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, Mosul and its environs are among the most ethnically diverse areas of Iraq. Even as the rest of the country has become more safe in recent years, Mosul continues to remain among the most prone to violence.

In July, 35 people were killed and 63 injured in two consecutive suicide bombings in a crowded street in Tel Afar district, also targeting Shiites.

In western Baghdad, gunmen have blown up a wooden bridge that connects Ameriyat al-Falluja and Abu Ghraib towns.

A local police source told the German Press Agency