Many Iraqis Die in Mosque Explosion as London Accuses Iran for Killing British Soldiers

06/10/2005| IslamWeb

At least 25 Iraqis have been killed and about 87 wounded in a car-bomb blast targeting Ibn al-Nama mosque in the city of Hilla, south of Baghdad, police and hospital officials said.

Some others said Wednesday's deadly blast was caused by an explosive devise planted inside the mosque, Aljazeera reported.

The bomb exploded at the entrance of the Shia mosque where worshippers had gathered for prayers before the breaking of the fast on the first day of Ramadan, police and hospital officials said.

Hilla, located about 95km south of the Iraqi capital, has been the scene of frequent deadly attacks by anti-government fighters.

Police were trying to determine whether Wednesday's blast was caused by a car packed with explosives or a bomb left at the scene, police spokesman Captain Muthanna Khaled Ali said.

The attack came five days after a car bomb exploded in a crowded Hilla market, killing 10 people, including women and children.

In other incidents, an Iraqi police officer of the rank of lieutenant-colonel was killed and two other policemen wounded in two separate attacks by armed men in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Aljazeera reported quoting police sources on Wednesday.

Also, police found the body of an Iraqi who was hanged east of the city.

Iran 'behind attacks on British'

Britain has accused Iran of responsibility for explosions which have caused the deaths of all eight UK soldiers killed in Iraq this year.

A senior British official, briefing correspondents in London, blamed Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

He said they provided the technology to a Shia group in southern Iraq. The Iranians had denied this, he added.

While UK officials have hinted at an Iranian link before, this is the first specific allegation to be made.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the technology had come from Hezbollah in Lebanon via Iran and produced an "explosively shaped projectile".

He said that dissidents from the Mehdi army, a militia controlled by the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, were suspected of carrying out the attacks.

One of their leaders, Ahmed al-Fartusi, was arrested by British forces recently and was "currently enjoying British hospitality", as the official put it.

It was that arrest which sparked off an anti-British protest in Basra recently.

PHOTO CAPTION

The casket containing the body of Denmark soldier killed in Iraq. (AP)