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BEIJING, April 8 -- Three suicide bombers dressed as
women killed at least 70 people at a Shi'ite mosque on Friday in Baghdad, police
said.
The bombers were dressed in traditional Shi'ite
women's black robes when they struck, two inside the mosque and one just
outside, a police official said.
Some police sources said the bombers were women;
others said they were a woman and two men dressed as women. The bombing, the
biggest single suicide attack on a Shi'ite target since November 2005, also
wounded 158 people.
Men screamed as bodies were rolled on wooden carts to
ambulances at the complex, which belongs to SCIRI, the most powerful group
inside Iraq's ruling Shi'ite Alliance.
"The Shi'ites are the target and it's a sectarian
act. There is nothing to justify this act but black sectarian hatred," said
SCIRI leader Jalal al-Deen, who was at the mosque during the explosions. He said
he counted 65 bodies. Ordinary Iraqis picked up pieces of flesh and placed them
on trays.
"This is a cowardly act. Every time I see these
bloody scenes it tears apart my heart," said firefighter Jawwad Kathim.
A member of the Baghdad city council appealed to
Iraqis on state television to give blood.
The attack came a day after a car bomb exploded near
a Shi'ite shrine in the sacred southern city of Najaf, killing at least 13
people. Sectarian tensions have been running high since the bombing of a Shi'ite
shrine on February 22 touched off reprisals and pushed Iraq to the brink of a
sectarian civil war.
Hundreds of bodies have turned up on Baghdad streets
since then with bullet holes, bound and blindfolded and showing signs of
torture.
"My house is opposite to the mosque and when we heard
the first huge blast I ran to make sure my father, who was praying there, is
safe," said Naba Mohsin.
"When I entered the mosque a second huge blast
occurred and I saw a big blast with flames, I was thrown, then I woke up in the
ambulance. I want to know if my father is alive."
(Source: China Daily/Agencies) | 
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