Baku-APA. The casualties from a bomb attack at a Sunni mosque in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala on Friday rose to 24 dead and 77 wounded, police said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
The attack occurred around midday when a bomb hidden in the Abu Bakr al-Sideeq mosque detonated among dozens of worshippers who were observing the weekly Friday Muslim prayer in the town of Wajihiyah, northeast of the provincial capital of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source said.
Earlier, the source put the toll at 12 killed and 62 wounded by the blast.
Sectarian tension and reprisal killings have been running high recently between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the volatile province of Diyala, as Sunnis and Shiites accuse each other of supporting extremists and militiamen.
Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the border with Iran, has long been a volatile area since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite repeated military operations against militant activities.
Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in five years, raising fears that the latest bloodshed is plunging the country back into a full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when the monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.
Follow us on Telegram
t.me/apanewsaz
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
