IRAQ: A triple suicide bombing at a prominent Shia mosque in Baghdad killed at least 74 people and wounded more than 130 yesterday in the deadliest attack in months of sectarian strife.
The latest slaughter highlights the huge task facing Iraqi politicians struggling to break the deadlock over forming a government capable of restoring order to violent central parts of Iraq.
Fearing angry reprisals against Sunnis, Shia religious leaders issued appeals for calm last night. The blast came a day after a car bomb killed at least 10 people near a Shia shrine in Najaf, south of Baghdad.
Yesterday's suicide bombers - thought to be female or men dressed as women - struck as worshippers filed out after Friday prayers at Buratha mosque, in northern Baghdad's Itifiya district. The mosque is controlled by supporters of Iraq's largest Shia party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri).
Because of its political significance, security is usually tight and the mosque compound is protected by concrete blast walls. Witnesses said one bomber, dressed in a black robe, approached the compound gate and detonated a suicide belt. Amid the ensuing chaos, two other suicide attackers slipped inside the compound and detonated their bombs.
Baghdad city authorities urged people to donate blood. Earlier, Iraq's interior ministry had warned Baghdad residents to avoid crowds near mosques and markets because of the threat of car bombs. A prominent Shia figure, Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, who heads the Buratha mosque, escaped injury.
"Once more, the innocent Shia are the target of these serial killers. It is undoubtedly the result of a black sectarian act," he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Mr al-Sagheer, a member of the national assembly, accused some Sunni Arab newspapers of inciting the attacks by publishing reports that the Buratha mosque housed a detention centre where Sunnis were being tortured.
"These false and distorted reports about the Buratha mosque are unacceptable," he said.
He accused the newspapers loyal to the conservative Association of Muslim Clerics and to the Sunni politician Adan al-Dulaimi of "bearing full responsibility" for yesterday's slaughter. "We will sue them," he said.
Sectarian tensions in Iraq were heightened in February with the bombing of a sacred Shia shrine in Samarra. Iraqi and United States officials said that attack was part of a campaign by Sunni militants such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to provoke the Shia majority into all-out civil war.
Since then, hundreds of people have been killed in Baghdad - abducted, tortured and shot - in apparent defiance of appeals from religious leaders to refrain from revenge.
A western diplomat said the latest attack should convince Iraqi politicians of the urgent need to settle their differences over forming a government.
"The danger is that the more these attacks happen, and the longer it takes to form a government, [ the more] ordinary Iraqis will lose faith in the political process and take matters into their own hands," said the diplomat. He echoed concerns that the political impasse over the nomination of a new prime minister would embolden militias.
The ruling Shia Alliance, of which Sciri is a powerful member, remains divided over whether to nominate the incumbent, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, for the premiership, thereby risking opposition from Iraq's Kurds and Sunni Arabs.
The US and Britain would also prefer another candidate.