Baghdad, Sep 25 (DPA) At least 26 Iraqis were killed and more than 50 others injured when a vest bomber blew himself up near a Ramadan iftar banquet inside a Shiite mosque in central Baquba city, sources said.
Monday’s banquet to break the daytime fast during Ramadan gathered Shiite and Sunni top officials, senior police and army officers, including the Baquba governor and police chief, who was killed in the incident, as well as a US military commander and other local leaders.
Several officials and local leaders were reportedly killed or wounded in the attack, according to police and medical sources.
Defence Ministry spokesman General Mohamed al-Askary said that the blast occurred near a checkpoint outside the mosque.
Witnesses said that the attack was carried out despite intense security measures and the deployment of Iraqi police and military forces and US troops.
MP for Iraqi Coalition (UIC) Taha Derr’ told DPA that the attack targeted the figures who met on the iftar to hold a national reconciliation meeting.
According to Derr’, “Al Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq is responsible for the attack, as it targets nothing but causing sedition among the Iraqis.”
Baquba, capital of Diyala province, is 60 km north of Baghdad.
Diyala province has been a hotbed of armed groups, especially Al Qaeda militants.
Joint Iraqi-US forces, cooperatively with local leaders, had launched a security operation since June to eliminate Al Qaeda in the province.
In other news, a US soldier died Monday of wounds sustained from enemy gunfire in Salahaddin Province, the US military said.