Bombers dressed as women kill 79 in Iraq

SUICIDE attackers wearing women's robes blew themselves up yesterday in a Shi'ite mosque in northern Baghdad, killing at least 79 people and wounding 164.

It was the second major attack against Shi'ite targets in as many days.

The violence came as US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad warned Iraq faces the possibility of sectarian civil war if efforts to build a national unity government do not succeed, and that such a conflict could affect the entire Middle East.

Police said the blasts were caused by two attackers wearing black abayas at the Buratha mosque, which is affiliated with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main Shi'ite party.

Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, the preacher at the mosque and one of the country's leading politicians, said there were three assailants.

One came through the women's security checkpoint and blew up first, he said. Another raced into the mosque's courtyard while a third came to his office before detonating themselves, said Mr al-Sagheer, who was not injured.

He accused Sunni politicians and clerics of waging "a campaign of distortions and lies against the Buratha mosque, claiming that it includes Sunni prisoners and mass graves of Sunnis."

The attack occurred as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers. Earlier in the day, the Interior Ministry had cautioned people in Baghdad to avoid crowds near mosques and markets due to a car bomb threat.

On Thursday, a car bomb exploded about 300 yards from the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, the most sacred shrine in Iraq for Shi'ite Muslims. Ten people were killed, police said.

The attack yesterday was likely to increase tensions between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, already at a high level following the February 22 blast at a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra and reprisal killings. That bombing triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics.

The US ambassador urged Iraqis to restrain from retaliatory violence and "come together to fight terror".

Mr Khalilzad told the BBC that political contacts among Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders were improving, but that within the general population, "polarisation along sectarian lines" was intensifying - in part due to the role of armed militias.

He said "a sectarian war in Iraq" could draw in neighbouring countries, "affecting the entire region".

He said the best way to prevent such a conflict was to form a government including representatives of all groups. That effort has stalled over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to the Shi'ite candidate to lead the government, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Mr Khalilzad said the international community must do everything possible "to make this country work" because failure "would have the most serious consequences for the Iraqis, for sure, but also for the region and for the world".

Rising sectarian tensions have emerged as a significant threat to US efforts to form a stable society in Iraq.

Mr Khalilzad confirmed the Americans had been meeting groups linked to the insurgency and said he believed those contacts were responsible for a decline in the number of attacks against coalition forces.

He would not specify the groups but said they did not include Saddam Hussein loyalists or "terrorists," presumably excluding extremists of al-Qaida in Iraq.

US officials have in the past confirmed contacts with people who claimed to have links with the insurgents. It was unclear whether these contacts included insurgent commanders or simply intermediaries who support the war against coalition forces.