Suicide blast kills 46 at mosque

A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up at a Shiite mosque during a funeral in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul yesterday, killing at least 46 people and wounding more than 100 in a fresh attack on the country’s newly-empowered majority.

Witnesses said the victims had come from various sections of Iraq’s ethnically and religiously divided society and had been at the funeral to pay their respects.

Police had put the toll at 30, but officials from the two main hospitals in Mosul, a city that has become a focus for US efforts to defeat Iraq’s insurgency, later said the number of dead had reached 46.

One witness, Tahir Abdullah Sultan, 45, said: "As we were inside the mosque, we saw a ball of fire and heard a huge explosion. After that, blood and pieces of flesh were scattered around the place."

Mainly Sunni Arab insurgents have staged increasingly audacious attacks on Shiite and official targets in their relentless campaign to topple a US-backed government and stall efforts by Shiites to form a new cabinet.

In Baghdad, yesterday, insurgents posing as policemen killed a police chief, stopping his vehicle at a fake checkpoint, asking his name, then shooting him in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda followers.

Later, police found the bodies of four Iraqi soldiers shot dead and dumped by insurgents in the west of the country, adding to two grim discoveries of 41 bodies - some shot and others beheaded - in Iraq’s Sunni heartland earlier this week.

The US-backed interim government has set up a new Iraqi police force, army and security service, often trained by foreign instructors. But many say insurgents bent on bringing down the US-backed government can easily penetrate their ranks.

Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city, with a mixed population of mostly Sunni Arabs and Kurds, has seen a surge in violence since last November. Dozens of people with serious injuries were taken to hospital after yesterday’s bombing, witnesses said.

As the death toll continued to rise, public health experts criticised the US and Britain for failing to record the number of Iraqi civilians killed since the US-led invasion and called for an independent inquiry.

A statement published in the British Medical Journal, bearing the names of two dozen experts from Britain, the US, Australia, Canada, Spain and Italy, said: "We believe that the joint US/UK failure to make any effort to monitor Iraqi casualties is ... wholly irresponsible."

Tensions have risen in Iraq’s north between the three main groups that populate the area, the Shiites, the Kurds and the Sunnis.

The Kurds, who want to extend an autonomous region in the north, dominate the region and have encouraged those who fled under Saddam Hussein to return home.

In Kirkuk, newly returned Kurds trying to reclaim land clashed with Iraqi police. Two National Guards were hurt, police said.

In the capital, insurgents targeted police. Lt-Col Ahmed Obeis, travelling to work at Salhiya police station in central Baghdad, was shot dead along with two other policemen while one guerrilla filmed the attack.

"An al-Qaeda team set up a checkpoint in the Ilam district and lay in wait for an officer in the interior ministry intelligence branch who used to investigate and harm mujahideen," al-Qaeda in Iraq said in a statement posted on the internet.

"When he pulled out his identity papers the mujahideen riddled him with bullets, killing him."

In south-eastern Baghdad, another policeman, Iyad Abed, was shot dead by gunmen on his way to work.

In the town of Rutba, on the highway to Jordan in western Iraq, the bodies of four Iraqi soldiers were found, hospital sources said, adding that the men had been shot about five days ago.

Guerrillas target those working for the interim government, US forces or construction companies helping to rebuild Iraq. They have often impersonated police to carry out attacks.