14 Shi’ites killed by car bomb as they left mosque

A SUICIDE car bomber killed 14 Shi’ite worshippers as they left a Baghdad mosque yesterday, a Muslim holy day, ratcheting up tension between Iraq’s religious communities just nine days before elections.

In a sign of the insurgents’ confidence, a group beheaded an Iraqi soldier in broad daylight in the rebel town of Ramadi. They left the body, still dressed in army fatigues, in the street with the severed head placed on the torso and a note warning other Iraqi troops to quit.

The bomb, which exploded at a small green-domed mosque in western Baghdad as the faithful finished praying, wounded 40 people including children, doctors said. The emergency room of a nearby hospital was filled with bloodied bodies.