Baghdad Blast kills eight as Obama Visits

April 7, 2009

A car bomb blast targeting a mosque in a Baghdad Shiite district killed eight people and wounded 14 others on Tuesday, just ahead of a surprise visit to the city by U.S. President Barack Obama. The strike on the Husseiniyah mosque, in the Kadhimiyah neighborhood, also comes a day after a series of six, apparently coordinated car bombings struck mainly Shiite areas of the city.

No group claimed responsibility for the recent blast, but the U.S. military said the attacks bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni extremist group that has targeted Shiite civilians in the past.

The government blamed supporters of Saddam Hussein in league with al-Qaeda and suggested the blasts were timed for Tuesday's anniversary of the founding of his disbanded Ba'ath party. Thursday is also the sixth anniversary of the U.S. capture of Baghdad, which ended Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime.