By IRNA,
Baghdad : A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up just inside the courtyard of a Shia mosque in a town south of Baghdad on Friday, killing 12 people and wounding 19.
The attack took place in Mussayib, a town about 80 kilometers, south of Baghdad, as about 700 people were attending Friday prayers and preparing to hold a peaceful march in protest at the ratification in the Iraqi Parliament on Thursday of a new security agreement with the United States.
Mussayib, a predominantly Shia town, has many Sunni villages nearby and has been struck several times in the past by suicide bombings and attacks on local government officials.
The mosque, the Sadrist Hussainiya, was a Sunni mosque under Saddam Hussein. But after he was ousted supporters of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr took it over and turned it into a Shia mosque and an office for the local Sadrists.
The bomber made it past the main checkpoints where worshipers were searched, said an Iraqi Army officer.