Car bomb outside mosque leaves casualties

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: A booby-trapped car on Saturday went off in front of a mosque near Kirkuk city, leaving an unknown number of casualties, according to a local police chief. “The blast occurred in front of al-Rasoul Mosque in Taza district (30 km south of Kirkuk city) while worshippers were coming out of the mosque,” Brig. Sarhad Qadir told IraqiNews.com news agency. The attack is the second to hit the province within hours. Earlier today, an improvised explosive device (IED) targeted the convoy of Col. Abdullah Qadir, a police director in Kirkuk, wounding two civilians. Kirkuk, an oil-rich and mixed city of Kurds, Turkmen, Christians, and Arabs, lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. SS (P) 1