Iraq Watch: April 7, 2006

Blast at Mosque Leaves Nearly 80 Dead

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least two suicide bombers, disguised in traditional women's clothing, attacked the historic Shiite Buratha mosque in central Baghdad shortly after Friday prayers leaving at least 79 worshippers dead and over 160 wounded.

The afflicted mosque is closely aligned with Iraq's largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). The mosque's imam, Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, is one of the party's leading politicians.

Distraught survivors frantically searched the area for relatives while the dead were tossed into the back of Iraqi security vehicles or onto wooden pushcarts and stretchers. Hundreds of bloodied slippers, lost in the chaos of the multiple blasts, were strewn across the mosque compound.

Friday's well-coordinated assault seemed aimed at fanning the flames of sectarianism that have been increasingly thriving in current-day Iraq.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of four U.S. service members Friday. One MND-B soldier died at approximately 12:45 p.m. Friday following a small-arms fire attack in western Baghdad.

A soldier, assigned to the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, was killed when an IED struck his combat patrol yesterday near the industrial city of Beiji.

A 2/28 Brigade Combat Team Marine was slain Thursday due to "enemy action" in the volatile Anbar province while another Marine was killed yesterday by an Iraqi army soldier at a coalition base near the border town of Qaim.