Sixty-four die in Iraq mosque attack
A suicide bomber and several gunmen have attacked a Sunni mosque in a volatile province of Iraq during Friday prayers, killing at least 64 people and wounding more than 60.
It was not immediately clear if the attack was carried out by Shiite militiamen or the Islamic State extremist group.
Islamic State has been advancing into the ethnically and communally mixed Diyala province outside Baghdad and has been known to kill fellow Sunni Muslims who refuse to submit to its leadership.
The attack on the Musab bin Omair Mosque in Imam Wais village, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) north-east of Baghdad, began with a suicide bombing near the entrance, an army officer and a police officer said.
They said gunmen then poured in and opened fire on the worshippers.
Officials in Imam Wais said Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen raced to the scene of the attack to reinforce security but stumbled upon bombs planted by the militants, which allowed the attackers to flee. Four Shiite militiamen were killed and thirteen wounded by the blasts.
The officials said Islamic State fighters have been trying to convince two prominent Sunni tribes in the area – the Oal-Waisi and al-Jabour – to join them, but that they have thus far refused.
The nearby towns of Jalula and al-Saadiyah have recently fallen to the Islamic State group.
Two medical officials confirmed the casualty figures.
Since early this year, Iraq has been facing an onslaught by Islamic State and allied Sunni militants. The crisis has worsened since June, when the group seized Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, in the north.
In Diyala, Islamic State fighters have clashed with Kurdish forces guarding disputed territory claimed by the Kurdish regional government in the north. The extremist group pushed Kurdish forces out of the nearby town of Jalula earlier this month after heavy fighting.
Islamic State has also clashed with Shiite militiamen and security forces loyal to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. At the height of Iraq’s sectarian bloodletting in 2006-2007 the province was among the country’s most lethal areas.
