BAGHDAD, April 12 (Xinhua) -- A car bomb exploded Wednesday outside a Shiite mosque in a town near Iraq's northern city of Baquba, killing 27 people and wounding 70 others, a police source said.

    The blast targeted the mosque in Huweider, seven km northeast of Baquba at about 8:50 p.m. (1650 GMT) in the evening, said the source.

    Baquba is some 65 km northeast of Baghdad.

    Most of those killed were said to be worshippers, but people around a nearby market were also among the collateral casualties.

    It was the latest deadly attack targeting Shiite mosques following the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, a holy northern Iraqi city of some 120 km north of Baghdad.

    Since then, sectarian violence has been plaguing the country which is struggling to form a new government after its parliamentary elections last December. Enditem