http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/world/middleeast/29iraq.html

August 28, 2011

28 Are Killed in Bombing at a Mosque in Baghdad

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and DURAID ADNAN

BAGHDAD -- A suicide bomber mounted a devastating attack in one of the largest Sunni mosques in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 28 people, including a member of Parliament, and wounding dozens more, according to security officials.

The attack and a recent spike in suicide bombings across the country heightened fears among Iraqis that the security situation is deteriorating as the United States prepares to withdraw all of its troops by the end of the year.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but it was similar to recent strikes by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which often uses suicide bombers. The group said this month that it had begun a 100-attack campaign to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The bombing on Sunday took place around 9:30 p.m. at the Umm al-Qura mosque, shortly after a Ramadan prayer session concluded. The mosque, which was built by Saddam Hussein, houses the Sunni Endowment of Iraq, one of the largest Sunni organizations in the country.

The mosque's imam said in a television interview afterward that the bomber was disguised as a beggar, and was initially let into the mosque because he appeared to be injured.

"We thought that this man really deserved to be helped," said the imam, Ahmed al-Samarai.

Security guards quickly became suspicious of the man, though, and threw him out, but he managed to re-enter and detonate his belt among a group of people, the imam said.

"What hurts me is seeing a 3-year-old boy who came with his father to pray," the imam said. "And then after the explosion, I saw his head separated from his body."

The boy's father was also killed in the attack, he said.

"The mosque was filled with blood and black smoke," said Mr. Samarai, who is also the head of the Sunni endowment. "Don't they fear God when they do this?"

The lawmaker killed in the attack, Khalid al-Fahdawi, had survived at least one assassination attempt by members of Al Qaeda, a local official in Anbar Province said. Mr. Fahdawi became a member of Parliament last year, representing the province, a mostly Sunni area once controlled by Al Qaeda, after a member of his party became the culture minister.

"The man is very well known in Anbar," said the local official, Muaid Jubarr. "It's his city. He was an Islamic moderate. He always criticized Al Qaeda and was against them. He always called for peace among the Muslims. Democracy doesn't go against Islam."

The mosque, which was completed in 2001, was originally named the Mother of All Battles Mosque, in reference to what Mr. Hussein believed was his victory over the United States in 1991 after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Some Iraqis have said that the mosque's architects modeled its minarets after the barrels of AK-47 assault rifles.

After the government fell in 2003, the mosque was given to Sunni clerics, and it became the center for the Sunni Endowment of Iraq.

The attack occurred two weeks after a coordinated group of attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen killed more than 90 people, the most violent day this year in Iraq. Several days later, Al Qaeda issued a statement saying that it had begun the 100-attack campaign.

"It doesn't matter if the people are Sunni Arab or not," Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, the United States military's chief spokesman in Iraq, said in an interview on Friday. "If they don't believe in what Al Qaeda believes in, from an Al Qaeda perspective they are apostates and they should be killed."

General Buchanan said he did not think Al Qaeda could reconcile its differences with the Iraqi government.

"These are people who will murder their own kids to make a point," he said. "They have no problem conducting suicide operations and murdering as many people as possible to make a show of it. I think they need to be brought to justice rather than reconciliation."

At least three people were killed and 13 others wounded in other violence across Iraq on Sunday. A car bomb in east Baghdad killed one civilian and wounded eight. Three other explosions in Baghdad wounded five civilians. North of the city of Baquba, two security officers were killed by gunmen.

An Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Anbar Province.