Suicide bomber attacks Iraqi mosque; twelve dead

October 16, 2009 Iraqi police have said that a suicide bomber killed at least 11 people in an attack on a mosque in northern Iraq on Friday.

According to officials, at least 70 other people were wounded in the bombing, which took place during Friday prayers at a Sunni mosque in the northern town of Tal Afar. The bomber, who was described as being "tall", stood up while the cleric, Abdul-Satar Hassan, a member of an Iraqi Sunni political party, was giving a sermon. He then opened fire with a firearm.

Several seconds later, he shouted "God is great!", and blew himself up with explosives attached to his person, according to a witness at the mosque.

Tal Afar is located in the Nineveh province, near Mosul. Though Iraq has seen a decline in violence over the past year, attacks in that part of the country have continued.