BAGHDAD, 13 April 2006 — At least 26 people were killed and 70 wounded in a car bombing near a Shiite mosque in a restive area of Iraq late yesterday, the latest in a wave of sectarian attacks plaguing the country.
The bomb went off in a busy market street as worshippers were leaving the mosque in the town of Howaider, near Baquba, 60 kilometers (36 miles) northeast of Baghdad.
“The car full of explosives was parked close to the mosque and those killed were worshippers who were leaving the sanctuary after evening prayers,” a Defense Ministry official said.
An Interior Ministry official said the latest toll was 26 dead and 70 wounded, adding that some of the injured were taken to a US military base near Baquba.
Sectarian violence has engulfed the country since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in the northern city of Samarra in February, leaving hundreds of people dead and raising warnings that the country was in the throes of civil war.
The attack was similar to a bombing last Friday when three suicide bombers, two dressed as women, blew themselves up near a Shiite mosque in Baghdad after weekly prayers, in the deadliest attack this year on Iraq’s dominant majority Shiite community.
Yesterday’s strike came after Parliament announced it would convene next week in a bid to break months of deadlock on the formation of a new government, blocked by disputes over the fate of Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
In a sign the impasse could be nearing an end, Speaker Adnan Pachachi told reporters that Parliament was set to meet April 17, marking only the second time the body has met in the four months since a landmark election in December. “There are signs that there will be agreement on all problems concerning formation of the government,” Pachachi said.
The new Parliament was inaugurated on March 16 but swiftly adjourned amid little sign of a deal on a government of national unity.
A key bone of contention has been the candidacy of Jaafari, who has continued to defy mounting pressure even from some Shiite allies to withdraw.
Kurds and Sunni Arabs cite his inability to curb sectarian violence that has raged since the Samarra bombing, leaving hundreds of people dead in tit-for-tat killings.
Shiite leaders from the dominant United Iraqi Alliance, who broke off talks on Tuesday after failing to reach a decision on Jaafari, canceled another meeting yesterday.
