By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : A death toll from a recent suicide bombing in a Sunni Mosque in northern Iraq rose to 14 with over 90 people injured, Xinhua reported on Saturday.
Al Jazeera earlier reported at least 12 people were killed and 42 injured.
“Our latest reports said that 14 worshippers were killed and some 92 others injured,” Xinhua quoted an anonymous Iraqi source as saying.
According to police, a suicide bomber entered the mosque in the town of Tal Afar, some 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) west of the provincial capital city of Mosul near the Syrian border, carrying an automatic rifle during prayers. He hid among the congregation then stood up, opened fire, and when he ran out of bullets detonated an explosive belt.
The mosque’s imam was killed in the attack.
The incident follows a series of recent attacks on Sunni clerics in Iraq, who have spoken out against Islamist terrorism.
The Iraqi province of Nineveh, where Tal Afar is located, is believed to be one of the last strongholds of al-Qaida fighters in the war-torn country.