Baghdad: At least 15 people have been killed and 40 others wounded when a suicide bomber attacked a Shiite gathering in central Iraq on Monday, officials said, in the latest in a string of attacks targeting Iraq’s Shiite majority that have left dozens dead.
According to reports, the bomber targeted a mourning gathering at about 6:15 p.m. (15:15 GMT) in central Baquba, north of Baghdad, a police colonel said, adding that an army first lieutenant, four police officers and seven other members of the security forces were among the dead or wounded.
Dr Ahmed Ibrahim at Baquba General Hospital confirmed that the facility had received 15 bodies and 40 wounded people.
The attack came as Sami al-Massudi, the deputy head of the Shiite endowment which oversees Shiite religious sites in Iraq, said a roadside bomb hit his convoy at about 12:15 pm (0915 GMT) in the Saidiyah area of south Baghdad.
Massudi said the bomb, which wounded three of his bodyguards, hit the middle vehicle in his convoy.
The attack happened on the same day that employees found a threatening letter in the central Baghdad headquarters of the endowment, which was destroyed in a suicide car bombing on June 4 that killed 25 people.
“We say to the Safavid rejecters (Shiites) that this is a first letter that you received with the colour and smell of blood, and the sound that will make you deaf, and what is coming, with God’s permission, will be much stronger,” the letter said, according to Massudi, who added that it was “signed by Al-Qaeda.”
Monday’s blasts are just the latest in a string of attacks targeting Iraq’s Shiite majority.
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