BAGHDAD, Iraq – A leading Sunni cleric called for religious and ethnic groups to take a stand against violence as Iraq endured a third consecutive day of sectarian killings – the worst, a suicide car bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed at least 12 worshippers as they left Friday prayers.
The bombing in Tuz Khormato, where a young Saudi man was later arrested wearing a bomb belt on his way to a second mosque, was the latest suicide attack following al-Qaida in Iraq’s declaration of all-out war on Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority.
Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terror group said it was taking revenge for a joint Iraqi-U.S. offensive against its stronghold in Tal Afar, a city near the Syrian border.
With more than 20 people killed Friday, the death toll over the past three days surpassed 200, with more than 600 wounded.
Sheik Mahmud al-Sumaidaei, a leading Sunni cleric whose group is linked to the country’s insurgency, criticized militants for targeting civilians. He called for Iraq’s religious and ethnic groups to take a stand against further bloodshed.
“I call for a meeting … of all the country’s religious and political leaders to take a stand against the bloodshed,” al-Sumaidaei said during his sermon at Baghdad’s Um al Qura Sunni mosque.
“We don’t need others to come across the border and kill us in the name of defending us,” he declared, a reference to foreign fighters who have joined the insurgency under the banner of al-Qaida. “We reject the killing of any Iraqi.”
In Tuz Khormato, 130 miles north of Baghdad, authorities said the attacker detonated his explosives-packed car as worshippers flowed out of the Hussainiyat al-Rasoul al-Azam mosque, a Shiite Turkmen place of worship.
Police said 12 people were killed and 23 wounded in the bombing, which also destroyed 10 shops and eight cars.
“We were stepping out of the mosque and suddenly a big blast shook the ground,” said Mustafa Ali, a 63-year-old ethnic Turkmen who escaped injury.
“I saw many people scattered on the ground, drenched in their own blood. I wanted to ask the bomber, ‘Why did you attack those innocents who had prayed?’” he said.
Sheik Abdul-Zahraa al-Suwaidi, also a Shiite, said the violence had tarnished the image of Islam and Muslims, but he blamed the continued presence of 140,000 U.S. troops for fueling sectarian tension.
“You have to know that Iraq will gain its security if the occupation troops leave this country,” al-Suwaidi told worshippers in Baghdad’s Risafaa district.
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