At least 32 killed by blasts outside Sunni mosque in Iraq's Baquba

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD | Fri May 17, 2013 8:08am EDT

(Reuters) - At least 32 people were killed in two explosions outside a Sunni Muslim mosque in Baquba, about 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Baghdad, after Friday prayers, police and medics said.

Attacks on Sunni and Shi'ite mosques, security forces and tribal leaders have spread since security forces raided a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk a month ago, igniting clashes and fuelling fears of a slide back into all-out inter-communal war.

Iraq has grown more volatile as the civil war in neighboring Syria strains fragile relations between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. Tensions are now at their highest since the last U.S. troops pulled out at the end of 2011.

(Reporting by Isabel Coles; Editing by Louise Ireland)


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/17/us-iraq-blast-idUSBRE94G0BW20130517

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. And another 7 with a bomb at a Sunni funeral

Later, police said at least seven people were killed by a bomb at a Sunni funeral in Madain, to the south.
...
On Thursday, at least eight people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shia mosque in the northern city of Kirkuk.
...
Hours before that, at least 12 people were killed in car bomb attacks on mainly Shia districts of the capital Baghdad.

On Wednesday, at least 34 people died in bomb attacks across Iraq, several of which targeted Shia areas.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22571895

The BBC point to 50 killed in an army raid on a Sunni protest as the start of the sectarian violence - see http://www.democraticunderground.com/11331346

Now 47 in all: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraqis-in-southern-city-mourn-2-shiite-fighters-killed-in-syria/2013/05/17/a53d1988-bece-11e2-b537-ab47f0325f7c_story.html

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. I think yesterday it was the Shiites turn to get blown up.

Iraq looks to be on a downward spiral toward sectarian civil war. Or being pulled into a larger Sunni vs. Shia confrontation. This could get real ugly from Gaza to Karachi.