Bombers kill 24 at Iraq mosque, hospital

Bombers killed 24 people in attacks on a mosque in central Iraq frequented by provincial officials and later at a hospital where the victims were being treated, officials said on Saturday. The attacks came a day after a spate of co-ordinated bombings in west Iraq killed 10 people, raising questions over the capabilities of Iraqi security forces just before all US forces must pull out.
Friday's violence in Tikrit, 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Baghdad, also 75 wounded people including two members of Salaheddin provincial council, a senior policeman and a judge. A provincial security official, who also did not want to be named, confirmed both tolls. An interior ministry official in Baghdad said 23 people were killed and 60 wounded in the two attacks.
The first bomb, hidden inside a fuel canister, detonated as worshippers were leaving the mosque in the tightly secured area of central Tikrit that is home to provincial government offices on the main Muslim day of prayer at around 12:45 pm (0945 GMT). The suicide attack occurred about eight hours later in the evening, as lawmaker Mutasher al-Samarrai visited victims at the hospital.