At least three people were killed and one wounded when a bomb ripped through a Sunni Muslim mosque in a largely Shi'ite area of Baghdad today, police said.
The blast, which gouged a gaping hole in the mosque nestled in Baghdad's Hurriyya district, raised the spectre of sectarian tension in Iraq, where Shi'ite Muslims persecuted under Saddam Hussein hope to consolidate political power in the government that replaces him.
As they poked through the wreckage, residents called the incident part of a pattern of intimidation by Shi'ites, who make up 60 per cent of Iraq's population and whose leaders have largely opted to work with the country's US occupiers.
"We are pointing the finger of accusation at the Shi'ites for this act," said Sheikh Ahmad Dabbash, who leads prayers at the damaged Ahbab al-Mustafa mosque, and linked the blast to previous attacks on Sunni mosques in the capital.
"Elements which claim to be Muslims, but which have nothing to do with Islam, came to divide Muslims and spread sectarianism in this country," he said.
The explosion, which struck about 7 a.m. (4 a.m. Irish time), shredded and scorched a car parked in the mosque's courtyard, left behind pools of blood mingled with dust.