Suicide Bombers Hit Baghdad Mosque

It seems that the guerrillas have decided that mosques are the most lucrative targets of opportunity, with yet another strike in the past hour:

Three suicide bombers on Friday struck a Baghdad mosque affiliated with a major Shiite political party, killing at least 43 people and wounding 138 others, police said.

The attack happened at the Buratha mosque, which has close ties to the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a part of the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance. The alliance won a plurality in the December 15 parliamentary elections. The mosque’s imam is Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir, a member of parliament affiliated with the United Iraqi Alliance.

While this is in one sense backfiring, with a growing segment of the population hating the perpetrators, it has nonetheless been an effective tactic of disruption. And given the number of mosques and the difficulty of stopping a terrorist prepared to die, it will likely continue.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.