{At least two people killed in suspected sectarian attacks amid tensions between regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran.}<\/p>\n
Three Sunni mosques in Iraq have been bombed and partially destroyed while at least two people have been killed in suspected retaliation for the execution of a Shia leader in Saudi Arabia, officials and police say.<\/p>\n
Groups of men wearing military uniforms detonated explosives at two mosques overnight in the Hilla region, south of Baghdad, while al-Fateh mosque in Sinjar, just outside Hilla, was also damaged in similar circumstances.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia executed 47 “terrorists”, including the Shia religious leader Nimr al-Nimr and a convicted al-Qaeda leader, Faris al-Zahrani, on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday it was severing diplomatic ties with Iran following an attack on its embassy in Tehran during protests against the executions in the kingdom on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In Hilla, about 80km from the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a police officer said the Ammar bin Yasser mosque in the Bakerli neighbourhood was bombed after midnight.<\/p>\n
“After we heard the explosion, we went to its source and found that improvised explosive devices had been planted in a Hilla mosque,” a police officer said.<\/p>\n
Ten houses were also damaged, he said, adding: “Residents said a group of people with military uniforms carried out this operation.”<\/p>\n
Falah al-Khafaji, a provincial council member, and a police source said that a guard inside the building had been killed.<\/p>\n
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.<\/p>\n
‘Criminal gangs’ blamed<\/p>\n
The interior ministry in Baghdad confirmed the attacks, which Haider al-Abadi, Iraqi prime minister, blamed on “Daesh [ISIL] and those who are similar to them”.<\/p>\n
He ordered provincial authorities “to chase the criminal gangs” who attacked the mosques.<\/p>\n
A muezzin – the person appointed to recite the call to prayer – was shot dead near his home in Iskandariyah, about 40km south of Baghdad.<\/p>\n
A local councillor identified the slain muezzin of the Mohammed Abdallah Jabbouri mosque, in Haswa, as Taha al-Juburi.<\/p>\n
Abadi gave warning in a Facebook post on Monday that the population against being dragged into sectarian conflict.<\/p>\n
“We have told the operations leaders in Babil [governorate] to track down the criminal gangs from groups like Daesh [ISIL] and the like, which use [the attacks on] the mosques to stir up sedition and undermine national unity,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
Source:Al Jazeera:[Bomb attacks damage three Sunni mosques in Iraq->http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2016\/01\/sunni-mosques-bombed-town-south-baghdad-160104102900367.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{At least two people killed in suspected sectarian attacks amid tensions between regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran.} Three Sunni mosques in Iraq have been bombed and partially destroyed while at least two people have been killed in suspected retaliation for the execution of a Shia leader in Saudi Arabia, officials and police say. Groups […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000071299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-22318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000071299,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22318.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22318.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22318.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22318.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22318.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22318.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000071299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22318"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=22318"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=22318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}