Suicide bomber kills 15 worshippers at Iraq mosque

Suicide bomber kills 15 worshippers at Iraq mosque
BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber opened fire on worshippers during Friday prayers at a mosque in northern Iraq and then blew himself up after running out of ammunition, killing 15 people, police and hospital officials said.

The attacker walked into the Sunni mosque in Tal Afar and started firing on worshippers with an AK-47 rifle as the imam was delivering his sermon, a local police official said. Sixty-five people were wounded in the attack. When the shooter ran out of ammunition, he detonated his explosives belt, the official said.

The imam, Abdul-Satar Hassan, a member of Iraq's largest Sunni political party, was also killed in the attack, the official said. It was not immediately clear if the slain imam was the intended victim, although Sunni clerics have increasingly become targets in Iraq's sectarian bloodletting.

The article goes on to say:

Recent attacks have mainly targeted ethnic minorities, possibly indicating insurgents are seeking out vulnerable, relatively unprotected targets to maximize casualties as the strapped Iraqi army focuses its efforts on more central areas of the country.

Yet another example of senseless violence and needless deaths in Iraq caused by suicide bombers. They aren't targeting people who can fight back. They aren't targeting US troops or people who are working with US troops. They are targeting innocent people who are just trying to live their lives and people who are defenseless.

So now my question is, do you care about these deaths? Are they less important and less worthy of discussion simply because they were killed by a suicide bomber?

UPDATED: Death toll has been raised to 15 instead of the original 12.

[edit on 16-10-2009 by Jenna]

I think they're extremely worthy of discussion. For all the talk of how the U.S. waged an illegal war, or how much better off the ME would be without the despotic likes of Saddam Hussein proving himself such an unstable element, the fact is that the people of Iraq (God help me for saying this) would be better off with Saddam in power. I'm not speaking of the general population, those very people that were annihilated for simply trying to live their lives, but of the insurgents... of the Sunnis and Shiites that seem to think that their particular brand of Islam is worth the killing of innocents. It's a sad state of affairs to have to say this, but all these insurgents have proven is that the only way there can be a lasting peace is if they're ruled by the iron hand of a bloodthirsty dictator. They're not intelletually capable of ruling themselves without killing each other. Still, my heart goes out to the families of those who were killed. A cowardly attack as the result of an ever more twisted view of what once was a noble religion.

reply to post by Jenna


Somehow someway this will get twisted so it's either the CIA or Mossad's fault. I'm not sure if Iaqis are ready for a representative type Government.

Yes The Iraqis are a honorable and ancient people but they have never had that type of freedom. They cant even get along within their own religion. Sunni vs. Shia.

They have always been dominated as a people by one form or another of strong central control, That's all they know. Not everybody in the world is ready for an open society. Freedom of religion etc.

They have 0 experiences in these matters. So we should not be surprised that they fall back on what they know. Attacking the differences instead of embracing variety.

The new Government may have to become as brutal as Saddam was in order to control the situation.

Originally posted by Legion2112
It's a sad state of affairs to have to say this, but all these insurgents have proven is that the only way there can be a lasting peace is if they're ruled by the iron hand of a bloodthirsty dictator. They're not intelletually capable of ruling themselves without killing each other.

To be fair, it's not all of them that are out trying to kill each other off. It's a relatively small group that's trying to kill off everyone who doesn't follow their flavor of religion. I think the majority of Iraqi's are intellectually capable of ruling themselves. The few always screw everything up for the many though.

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Originally posted by SLAYER69
Somehow someway this will get twisted so it's either the CIA or Mossad's fault.

They have always been dominated as a people by one form or another of strong central control, That's all they know. Not everybody in the world is ready for an open society. Freedom of religion etc.

I'm sure it will get twisted. Or at least someone will try.

That's a very good point. Just the transition from being dominated by a tyrant to not being dominated would have to be one heck of a shock to their culture. They may have gotten so use to it, whether they agreed with Saddam being in power or not, that some may not be sure how to live without it. Kinda like how someone who has spent the majority of their life in prison sometimes can't cope with being out of prison once they're released. Institutionalization I think it's called. I'd just hate to see them go back to being under a tyrant's thumb to end the suicide bombings.

The article has been updated to change the total killed to 15 and added that 95 more were wounded in the attack. I have updated the OP accordingly.

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On a related note, you know what I find sad? Had the title of this thread been "US troops kill 15 worshippers in Iraq Mosque", the masses would have flocked to condemn the guilty.

Hypocrisy at it's finest.

Of course they matter, Jenna. It takes a couple different sides to make up a coin, but it wouldn't exist without both.

We could really TRY to blame them on something other than fundamental, irreconcilable differences between what seems in this case to be different sects of the same religion, but after a while it gets pointless to try and figure out who has racked up the most kills.

What really gets me about these stories is just what I said before...isn't it all Islam? I don't want to derail your thread or anything, but it just makes me wonder how these two sect can be so violently different.

I guess it isn't too much different than Catholic and Protestant violence in other parts of the world. I appreciate you bringing this one up and reminding us all that there is always more than one side to a story.

Originally posted by KSPigpen
What really gets me about these stories is just what I said before...isn't it all Islam? I don't want to derail your thread or anything, but it just makes me wonder how these two sect can be so violently different.

Yeah it's the same religion. I didn't understand what the conflict was all about either until I started reading about it. Basically the conflict all comes down to a disagreement over 1000 years ago about who was the rightful successor of Muhammad. Of course that's the simplified version of the conflict, it's more complicated than that but I am by no means the right person to give a history lesson on Islam. IslamForToday is where I started reading about it and as far as I know it's not a bad source to start with for understanding it. Really it's not much different than the Catholic/Protestant conflict from what I understand, it's just still a deadly one.