Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque in south of the Iraqi capital on Sunday, blowing up the mosque and setting its building on fire, local police source said.

    Gunmen stormed the Sunni mosque at Haswa, some 50 km south of Baghdad, blowing up its minaret and setting its building ablaze, the source from Hilla City police told Xinhua. He did not give information on the casualties of the incident.

    The attack, taking place a day after a suicide bomber riding in an explosive-laden truck blew it up in the Shiite mosque of the Imam al-Mahdi in the al-Asriyah village in the Haswa town, north of Hilla City, killing eight people and wounding 40 others, came apparently as a revenge one, he said.

    Earlier in the morning, gunmen opened fire at a procession of Shiite mourners of those killed on Saturday's suicide attack, wounding two people, the source said.

    Sectarian violence and reprisal killings escalated between the main Iraqi communities, Sunni and Shiite, after the bombing of the Shiite shrine of Imam Askari in Samarra on February 2006.