Bomb kills 30, wounds dozens at Sunni mosque in Iraq

A hidden bomb killed 30 Sunni worshipers, and wounded 52 others at a mosque near Baquba, Iraq, on Friday at 1 p.m., police and health officials said.

The Abu al-Qassim Mohammed, a Sunni Mosque in Umm al-Adham district, is about 3 miles (5 kilometers) west of Baquba which is about 37 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad.

The bomb was hidden inside the mosque AC ducts and stuffed with metal ball bearings, police officials told CNN.

Today’s attack that targeted is the latest in a series of attacks targeting Sunni and Shiite mosques over the past few months.

In a separate attack, a bomb in Qara Tapa, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Baquba, killed one person and wounded four others at a Sunni mosque.

In Mosul, about 400 km north of Baghdad, five people were killed in three separate incidents.

The deadliest attack happened when a car bomb exploded at the of the head of Nineveh provincial council’s convoy and killed three of his bodyguards

On Wednesday a suicide bomber blew himself up amid a crowd of worshipers at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killing at least 30 people and wounding 55, police said

The bomber wore an explosive vest, which he detonated Wednesday evening in the northwestern al-Kassra neighborhood, police officials said. The force of the blast damaged not only the mosque, but several buildings nearby, police said.

Iraq has seen a sharp increase in friction between its Shiite and Sunni populations since April, when Iraqi security forces raided a site used by Sunni protesters to demonstrate against the Shiite-led government.

Sunnis have felt politically marginalized under Shiite President Nuri al-Maliki, whose government fears that Sunni Islamists involved in fighting in neighboring Syria are now targeting it.

More than 800 Iraqis were killed and another 2,030 wounded in violence and acts of terrorism in August, the United Nations said.