Scores killed in suicide attacks on mosque in eastern Iraq, Baghdad international hotel

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Suicide bombers killed 74 worshippers at two Shiite mosques near the Iranian border Friday, while a pair of car bombs targeting a Baghdad hotel housing Western journalists killed eight Iraqis.

The suicide attackers targeted the Sheik Murad mosque and the Khanaqin Grand Mosque in Khanaqin, 90 miles northeast of Baghdad, as dozens of people were attending Friday prayers, police said. The police command said 74 people were killed and 75 wounded in the largely Kurdish town.

At sunset, dozens of people were still searching the rubble of the three-story Khanaqin Grand Mosque. As the men dug, 12-year-old Sarkhel Akram collected copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, then she kissed them and put them away.

The suicide attacker walked into the mosque and detonated his explosives in the middle of a group of people, said Ali Abdullah.

Omar Saleh, 73, said from his bed at Kalar hospital that he was bowing in prayer when the bomb exploded.

"The roof fell on us and the place was filled with dead bodies," he said.

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division assisted Iraqi security forces in Khanaqin, sending medical specialists and supplies.

Hafez Abdul-Aziz, an official with the Iraqi Islamic Party in Diyala, condemned "the cowardly terrorists' act" and said that his party members, most of whom are Sunni, are ready to donate blood for the victims in Khanaqin.

Including Friday's attacks in Khanaqin and Baghdad, suicide bombings in Iraq have killed at least 1,617 Iraqis and wounded at least 3,429 since April 28, 2005, when the country's first elected government took power, according to an Associated Press count.

Of those, suicide-driven vehicle bombs killed at least 1,115 and wounded at least 2,591, and suicide bombers on foot killed at least 502 and wounded at least 888. The totals do not include casualties of roadside bombs.

The blasts near the Hamra Hotel in Baghdad knocked down protective concrete walls and blew out windows but caused no structural damage. Several nearby homes were destroyed, and firefighters and U.S. troops joined neighbors to dig through the debris to pull out victims.

Gunfire followed the blasts, which came less than a minute apart and echoed throughout downtown Baghdad. They sent a mushroom cloud hundreds of feet into the air.