Grieving relatives bury victims of mosque suicide blasts

Relatives and friends of Shiite Muslims killed in a deadly mosque attack carried coffins of the dead through the streets of several Baghdad neighbourhoods today, chanting religious rites and beating their heads and chests.

An Iraqi flag covered one of the coffins, a symbol of unity at a time of dramatic sectarian strife.

“We are the sons of one country, and one religion,” Jabar al-Maliki, an elderly cleric wearing traditional white robes, said at one of the funeral processions in Sadr City.

“These criminal acts are conducted by corrupt, terrorist groups that … have no sense of humanity.”

At least 79 people were killed and more than 160 wounded in yesterday's attack, the deadliest in Iraq this year. Suicide bombers, one dressed in women’s robes, blasted worshippers as they left the Buratha mosque in northern Baghdad after the main weekly religious service in northern Baghdad.

Relatives continued to search for their loved ones in hospitals today. At the Sadr City procession, children held each other and cried: “Oh, father!”

Women followed behind the men, who carried the coffins of three victims – each of them male shop owners aged between 28 and 35.

The horrific explosions at the Buratha mosque are likely to stoke the already raw tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, and come at a time of political stalemate as Iraqi leaders struggle to form a new government.

Many see the formation of such a government representing all Iraqi groups as the only solution to stemming the startling violence.

Formation efforts have stalled over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shiite candidate to lead the government. Al-Jaafari has refused to step aside, and his Shiite coalition has been reluctant to reconsider his nomination for fear of splintering the alliance.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the mosque attack appeared to be exploiting these political difficulties, according to his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.

“This underscores the urgent need for political leaders to resolve their differences in the best interests of the nation,” Annan’s spokesman said.

Police today found the body of a man killed by a roadside bomb near a highway in southern Baghdad’s Dora district.

In neighbouring Saydiyah, gunmen shot and wounded a barber as he was leaving his home, police said. Back in Dora, another man was shot and wounded while driving his car. A pistol and wads of American dollars were found in the car, police said.

After Friday’s attack, rescuers raced to and from the mosque, ferrying bodies from the walled compound on blood-soaked wooden pushcarts and loading them on the beds of pick-up trucks.

City officials urged Iraqis to donate blood for the wounded.

Inside the mosque, pools of blood stained the chipped and crumbling floor next to a red prayer rug.

A firefighter wearing a yellow helmet and yellow gloves kneeled down to inspect the scene.

Police said there were two suicide bombings at the mosque one at the outer wall surrounding the compound and another at the entrance to the mosque building. The blast in the entrance likely killed some worshippers inside.

But Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, the preacher at the mosque and one of the country’s leading politicians, said there were three bombings. One assailant came through the women’s security checkpoint and blew up first, he said.

The preacher, who was not injured, said another raced into the mosque’s courtyard while a third tried to enter his office before they both detonated their explosives.