Suicide bombers kill 13 at Baghdad mosques

A leg and other body parts could be seen more than 100 meters from where a bomber detonated a taxi after ramming it into a police vehicle guarding a Shi'ite prayer hall in the Zafaraniya district, said a Reuters TV cameraman at the scene.

 

Blood poured from a vegetable truck used to carry away the bodies and glass was shattered in surrounding buildings.

 

Baghdad security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said the Zafaraniya attack killed seven people and wounded 23.

 

In the other strike, in the New Baghdad district, the bomber was a teenage boy, who was accosted by a member of the security forces before blowing himself up 80 meters from a prayer hall, killing six people and wounding 26, Moussawi said.

 

Both districts are Shi'ite areas in the east of the capital. The death tolls could rise, police said.

 

It was the second major spate of bombings in the capital in recent days apparently linked to the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking Ramadan's end, one of the main celebrations in the Islamic year when Muslims attend mosque services and family feasts.

 

Government officials had warned that militants might strike during the holiday.

 

For most of Iraq's Shi'ites Thursday is the main day of celebration for the holiday, which Sunni Muslims began observing earlier in the week. The government has declared a six-day public holiday to cover sects who observe it on different days.

 

Violence overall in Iraq is at four-year lows and militants no longer control large numbers of villages and city districts as they did until 2007. But militant cells are still active and able to carry out bomb attacks.

 

On Sunday evening a spate of four bombs killed at least 32 people in Baghdad, many of them out buying Eid al-Fitr gifts in the busy Karrada shopping district.