Iraq Watch: June 16, 2006

Shoe Bomber Targets Shiite Mosque

A suicide bomber with explosives hidden inside his shoes targeted a prominent Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad during traditional Friday prayers.

The blast at the Buratha mosque killed at least 13 worshippers and injured an additional 28. The mosque is led by Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, an outspoken member of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA).

Also in northern Baghdad, mortars killed at least three civilians and wounded 16 in the Saaba al-Bour neighborhood.

South of the capital, meanwhile, militants gunned down a Sunni leader in an apparent sectarian attack in the recently restive city of Basra.

Youssif al-Hassan was killed along with his bodyguard near the Basra Grand mosque where al-Hassan was a prayer leader. Al-Hassan was a regional leader of the hard-line Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS).

Late Friday the American military announced that a U.S. soldier was killed and two were missing following an insurgent attack south of Baghdad. The soldiers were manning a traffic checkpoint near the town of Youssifiyah when militants ambushed them.