Posted on 04/03/2004 11:22:37 PM PST by yonif
A bomb has exploded outside a small Shia mosque in the town of Baquba, north of Baghdad, early on Sunday local time, destroying most of the building and wounding one person, witnesses said.
A Reuters television cameraman at the scene said the al-Rasool al-Adham ("The Great Prophet") mosque had collapsed from the force of the explosion, which went off after morning prayers, when the building was mostly empty.
It is not the first time a mosque has been attacked in the town.
In January, five people were killed and more than 30 wounded when a bomb exploded outside another Shia mosque in the centre of Baquba as Friday prayers were ending.
The town, which lies about 65 kilometres north of Baghdad, is mixed Sunni and Shiite Muslim and has seen regular unrest over the past year, with insurgents attacking US forces and Iraqi police using roadside bombs or suicide attacks.
Shiites are the minority among Muslims worldwide but the majority in Iraq, with about 60 per cent of the population.
They were oppressed for decades under former president Saddam Hussein, a Sunni.
US officials are increasingly concerned about attempts to foment sectarian conflict, with both Sunni and Shia mosques being attacked and clerics killed in recent months.
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