Mosque and bakery attacks kill at least 23

A CARBOMB exploded outside a Shi’ite mosque north-east of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens, a police official and witnesses said.

Also, masked men sprayed gunfire into a crowd at a bakery in a mostly Shi’ite neighbourhood in the capital, killing 11 people.

The violence came as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit and said Iraqis, not Americans, must defeat the country’s insurgency.