Friday, February 18 2005 17:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: Seventeen people were killed and 23 wounded in a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in southern Baghdad today (Feb 18, 2005) as Iraq's Shiite community began a religious mourning period, police said.

"The attack was carried out by a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt at the Kazimain mosque in Abu Dishr near Dura," a police officer at the nearby Yarmuk hospital told sources in Baghdad.

"I had just begun Friday prayers when an enormous explosion rocked the building," said the mosque's imam, Sheiksh Malek Kinani, who was also at the hospital.

Extremist Sunni Arab insurgents have pledged to target the country's Shiite majority which swept to victory in the January 30 elections and is set to take power for the first time in the country's history.

A US Army official said the blast happened at around 1530 hrs (IST).

"I can confirm there was a suicide bombing at a mosque in Dura and there are casualties, I just don't have firm numbers," said US Captain Kelly Lewis.

Last week, another anti-Shiite bomb attack on a mosque before Friday prayers killed 14 people in the town of Balad Ruz, northeast of Baghdad.