Four killed as gunmen storm Sunni mosque during prayers

Four people were killed and 15 wounded when gunmen stormed a Sunni mosque near Tikrit today, Iraqi police said.

The 15 wounded in the attack on the Muslim bin Aqil mosque included fundamentalist cleric Abu al-Manar, who has spoken out against the killings of Iraqis.

Police Col. Luay Muhammad also said a cylinder filled with TNT was found at the scene, but it did not explode.

The attack occurred at 5am local time in Alam, just north-east of Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad.

Al-Manar subscribes to the Salafi – or Wahhabi – brand of Sunni Islam, which espouses an ancient and “pure” form of Islam. But he rejected the extremist takfiri ideology that urges Sunni Muslims to kill anyone they consider an infidel, even fellow Muslims.