Two Sunni mosques bombed, muezzin killed in Iraq
Iraq PM vows to hunt down mosque bombers
AFP
AFP, HILLA: Blasts rocked two Sunni mosques in central Iraq Monday, amid fears of renewed sectarian strife following Saudi Arabias execution of a prominent Shiite cleric, police and medics said.
Groups of men wearing military uniforms detonated explosives at two Sunni mosques overnight in the Hilla region, south of Baghdad, and a muezzin -- the person appointed to recite the Muslim call to prayer -- was shot dead near his home in Iskandariyah, the sources said.
In Hilla, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the capital, a police officer said the Ammar bin Yasser mosque in Bakerli neighbourhood was bombed after midnight.
After we heard the explosion, we went to its source and found that IEDs (improvised explosive devices) had been planted in the mosque, the captain said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the security forces were tracking down the perpetrators of attacks against Sunni religious targets south of Baghdad on Monday.
Unknown attackers bombed two mosques in the Hilla region and shot dead a muezzin near Iskandariyah, a mixed area south of the capital which was badly affected by the civil war that raged in the country a decade ago.
We ordered Babil operations command to hunt down the criminal gangs of Daesh and their likes who targeted mosques to sow sedition and undermine national unity, Abadi said on Twitter.
Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group which Iraqi security forces are battling on several fronts.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attacks, which came against a tense regional backdrop following the execution by Saudi Arabia of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
