Suicide Bombing near Iraq Place of Worship Kills a Dozen

There have been reports of a suicide bombing targeted at a Shia place of worship (known as a husseiniyah) in Kirkuk, northern Iraq on Thursday, leading to the deaths of at least 12 people.

According to eyewitness accounts, the suicide bomber had attempted to gain entrance to the al-Zahraa husseiniyah. Realizing that he couldn’t carry out his attack due to the refusal by the police to let him in, he detonated the explosives at the entrance, killing at least 12 people and wounding 18 others.

A senior police officer said that family members of victims from a spate of bomb blasts that had occurred the day before were at the husseiniyah receiving condolences at the time of the attack.

Only on Wednesday, six people were brutally killed in a car bomb explosion in Sadr City with about 17 others wounded. Then, another attack saw the deaths of three people, with nine others wounded, according to reports by the medical officials.

The attacks have been blamed on the unending Sectarian dispute occurring between the Sunni minority, and the Shiites majority, of which the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is a member. Accusations have been passed around, most especially at Nuri’s regime for targeting the Sunni community wrongly