Mosque blast kills at least 22

A bomb exploded at the entrance of a Shiite Muslim mosque south of Baghdad today as hundreds of worshippers gathered for prayers ahead of the breaking of the fast on the first day of Ramadan, killing at least 22 people and wounding 77, police and hospital officials said.

The explosion hit the Ibn al-Nama mosque, ripping through strings of light-bulbs and green and red flags hung around the entrance to mark the start of the holy month and ravaging the mosque’s facade.

It was the second major bomb attack in a week in Hillah, one of the most insurgent-hit towns in southern Iraq, the heartland of the Shiite majority.

Al Qaida in Iraq, one of the country’s deadliest militant groups, has called for stepped up attacks during Ramadan – and it previously declared an all-out war on Iraq’s Shiites.

The blast, which police believed was caused by a planted explosive, killed at least 22 people and wounded at least 77, said police spokesman Capt Muthanna Khaled Ali.