At least 26 killed, 50 wounded in bombing of reconciliation meeting at Baqubah mosque; Police chief dies, leaders of 'former insurgents' among wounded

Above: The charred walls of the mosque where the suicide bombing took place as seen today.

24 die in Iraq peace meeting blast

A suicide bombing in Iraq's volatile Diyala province ripped through a "reconciliation meeting" on Monday night attended by Sunni and Shiite militia leaders -- a brazen attack that killed and wounded dozens and fractured an effort to foster amity between the rival sects...

The attacker detonated a suicide belt inside the Shifta Shiite mosque in western Baquba during the daily breaking of the Ramadan fast, Interior Ministry officials said...

Families recovered bodies from the local morgue on Tuesday and funerals were held in Shifta for both the Shiites and Sunnis, who were among the dead.

The dead included Baquba police Chief Ali al-Deylan and Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Obaidi, commander of Diyala's police operations -- both Sunnis. Another slain official was Ahmed al-Tamimi, the head of the local Shiite Endowment, which administers Shiite religious facilities in the province.

Read the rest at CNN

Iraq Suicide Bomber Kills 26 People, Wounds 50 Others

A suicide attack outside a mosque near the northeastern Iraqi city of Baquba killed at least 26 people and wounded 50 others during a reconciliation meeting of Sunni and Shiite Muslim officials.

The bomber set off an explosive belt at the gathering in the village of Shifta, in Diyala province, late yesterday, Interior Ministry spokesman Abdel Karim Khalaf told state television.

Senior Iraqi provincial leaders and U.S.-led forces from the province were holding a festival, which involved more than 800 people from across the Sunni and Shiite sects and several tribes, the U.S. military said today in an e-mailed statement. Al-Qaeda carried out the assault, the military said.

Among the dead was the head of a Shiite delegation, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tamimi, and Ali Daleen al-Jourani, a local police chief, state television reported.

Read the rest at Bloomberg News

Iraq suicide bomber kills 25 at Shiite-Sunni meeting

Witnesses said the bomber detonated explosives strapped to his waist as participants were washing their hands in the mosque courtyard after sharing a meal to break the daylight fast that is a tradition during the holy month of Ramadan.

"The courtyard turned to pools of blood, and body parts were scattered everywhere," Ahmed Kheshali, who attended the meeting, said by telephone. "We don't know how it happened. There were at least three or four checkpoints" to get in.

Police in Diyala said they expected the casualty count to increase. The critically injured were evacuated to a nearby U.S. base for treatment while others were sent to the Baqubah Hospital, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

The U.S. military has poured troops into Baqubah in a bid to drive out insurgents, who last year declared the city the capital of their self-declared Islamic caliphate and riddled its streets with bombs.

Read the rest at the LA Times

Suicide Attack Kills 21 at Gathering Intended to Reconcile Iraqi Factions

Witnesses said the bomber rushed into a Shiite mosque in the city, the capital of Diyala province, where those gathered had just completed their iftar feast, the meal that breaks their day-long fast during the current holy month of Ramadan.

"We had just finished and were heading to the places to wash our hands, and then a big explosion took place," said Uday al-Nidawi, a leader of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a Sunni insurgent group that has recently cooperated with U.S. forces. "A suicide bomber rushed inside. The police were running after him and they were shooting at him, but he managed to get really near the area where everybody was sitting."

The bombing apparently was intended to disrupt U.S. efforts to foster reconciliation between tribal groups and turn them against al-Qaeda in Iraq, a predominantly Iraqi insurgent group that the Bush administration and U.S. generals view as their primary foe. While no group had asserted responsibility for the attack by Monday night, it mirrored attacks previously conducted by al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The dead included Brig. Gen. Ali Delyian al-Jorani, the commander of Baqubah police, as well as other senior commanders and sheiks. The governor of the province, Raad Rashid Mulla Jawad, was among dozens injured, security officials said.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

Leaders of armed movements among Diala mosque bombing casualties

A key member of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Iraq) was among the dead in Monday evening's bombing of a Shiite mosque in Diala province, while prominent members of the 1920 Revolution Brigades and Jaysh al-Mujahideen were wounded, a security source said on Tuesday.

The three were "members of the Diala Salvation Council, which fights al-Qaeda Organization in coordination with the Iraqi forces and the Multi-National Forces (MNF) and were gathering for an iftar (fast-breaking) banquet that brought senior officials together," the source, who preferred not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Among the dead were also "several chieftains and notables of Diala, like Sheikh Ibrahim al-Hassan, the head of Zubayd tribe," said the source, adding Sheikh Kanaan Musarhid al-Majamie, a chief of a Sufi group in Diala, was also wounded.

"The brother of Diala's governor, Capt. Saad al-Tamimi, and the governor's escort Raed al-Rubaie were killed in the explosion," the source also said.

Many local residents in Diala expressed astonishment at Monday's bombing in view of the heavily-intensified security precautions taken by Iraqi forces in the area where three security checkpoints were set up for the occasion.

At least 26 people were killed and 50 others were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body inside a mosque where local officials and tribal chiefs were gathered in a village near Baaquba city on Monday evening.
"Among the dead were Diala police chief Brig. Ali Deliyan and operation room director Brig. Najib al-Taie," a security source had told VOI on Monday.
The source had also noted that Diala's mayor and provincial council chairman, who were present at the iftaa, survived unscathed.

From VOI

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