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Gunmen Burn Sunni Mosque in Iraq in Revenge Attack | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque south of Baghdad on Sunday, setting it ablaze a day after a suicide truck bomber struck near a Shi’ite mosque in the same area, police said.

Police in Hilla, close to the town of Haswa, where the attack occurred, said at least four people were wounded. An Interior Ministry official said a curfew had been imposed.

Gunmen stormed the mosque in Haswa, a religiously mixed town about 50 km (35 miles) south of the Iraqi capital, and destroyed its minaret in a blast. The building was set on fire, a police official said, describing it as an apparent revenge attack.

A suicide truck bomber exploded near a Shi’ite mosque in Haswa on Saturday, killing 14 and wounding 21, Hilla police said. The provincial health directorate and the Interior Ministry official put the toll at 16.

Mosques and other religious buildings have been frequent targets of attack. The bombing of a revered Shi’ite shrine, the al-Askariya mosque, in the town of Samarra in February 2006 sparked a wave of sectarian fighting between Iraq’s majority Shi’ites and minority Sunnis that has killed tens of thousands.