MOSUL, Iraq — A double attack yesterday by two suicide bombers outside a crowded Shiite mosque in the northwestern Iraqi town of Tal Afar killed at least four people and wounded 17, police said. Tal Afar police chief Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Al-Juburi said security forces shot both bombers but that the men still managed to detonate their suicide vests.
The attacks came during Friday prayers when the Sheikh Jawad Al-Sadiq mosque was crowded with worshippers. Juburi told AFP that one suicide bomber approached the mosque but was intercepted by guards, who shot him in the legs as he threw a grenade and detonated his vest, injuring some guards.
“As people came running out of the mosque to see what was happening, a second suicide bomber rushed into the crowd. The guards shot him but he managed to detonate his vest,” he said. “Because he was close to the crowd he managed to kill four people. In all 17 people were wounded.” Tal Afar is near the Syrian border in the northern province of Nineveh, one of the provinces where Iraqi and US officials say Al-Qaeda in Iraq has regrouped after being chased out of Baghdad and surrounding belts.
