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Sunni mosques in east Iraq attacked after IS-claimed blasts
Source: Reuters
World | Tue Jan 12, 2016 9:08am EST
Sunni mosques in east Iraq attacked after IS-claimed blasts
BAGHDAD | BY AHMED RASHEED
At least seven Sunni mosques and dozens of shops in eastern Iraq were firebombed on Tuesday, security sources and local officials said, a day after 23 people were killed there in two blasts claimed by Islamic State.
Ten people were also shot and killed in Muqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, security and hospital sources said.
The rise of the Islamist militant group Islamic State, which follows a Sunni jihadist ideology, has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in the country, mostly between the Shi'ite majority and minority Sunnis.
A surge in such violence could undermine efforts by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a moderate Shi'ite Islamist, to dislodge the militants from large swaths of the north and west that they seized in 2014.
At least two Sunni mosques south of Baghdad were attacked last week after a Shi'ite cleric was executed in Saudi Arabia, triggering angry reactions in Iraq and neighboring Iran.
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Sunni mosques in east Iraq attacked after IS-claimed blasts
BAGHDAD | BY AHMED RASHEED
At least seven Sunni mosques and dozens of shops in eastern Iraq were firebombed on Tuesday, security sources and local officials said, a day after 23 people were killed there in two blasts claimed by Islamic State.
Ten people were also shot and killed in Muqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, security and hospital sources said.
The rise of the Islamist militant group Islamic State, which follows a Sunni jihadist ideology, has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in the country, mostly between the Shi'ite majority and minority Sunnis.
A surge in such violence could undermine efforts by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a moderate Shi'ite Islamist, to dislodge the militants from large swaths of the north and west that they seized in 2014.
At least two Sunni mosques south of Baghdad were attacked last week after a Shi'ite cleric was executed in Saudi Arabia, triggering angry reactions in Iraq and neighboring Iran.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-violence-idUSKCN0UP1R420160112