INL condemns mosque bombing, urges civilian protection measures

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi National List (INL) on Sunday condemned the blast that tore through a district near Kirkuk city and left 267 persons killed or wounded yesterday. “The list calls on the government to take all necessary security measures to protect innocent people, to hold to account the negligent persons and to prevent the occurrence of similar terrorist attacks,” according to an INL statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency. Yesterday (June 21), a senior security official said that casualties from the blast that occurred in front of the Shiite al-Rasoul Mosque in Taza district (30 km south of Kirkuk city) reached 67 dead and 200 wounded persons. The blast occurred while worshippers were leaving the mosque. The attack was the second to hit the province within hours. Earlier yesterday, 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)/SR 1