A roadside bomb killed a Sunni cleric and five worshippers when they were leaving the mosque in Baghdad after Friday prayers, as regional sectarian violence threatens to return Iraq to all-out conflict.
A further 31 people were wounded in the blast outside the mosque in al-Rashidiya district of Baghdad, medics said. It was not clear who was behind the attack.
Iraq has become increasingly volatile as the civil war in neighbouring Syria strains volatile relations between Sunnis and Shi’ites. April saw the most killings since 2008, but was below the height of sectarian bloodletting in 2006-07.
On Friday the funeral of one of the five worshippers killed in the attack was held in a mosque near the scene of the attack.
Sunnis have been protesting since December against the Shi’ite-led government, which they accuse of marginalising their minority sect and monopolising power since U.S.-led troops toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Government concessions had begun to defuse the Sunni demonstrations until security forces raided a protest camp in the town of Hawija on April 23, sparking clashes that swiftly spread to other Sunni areas.
Iraq is home to a number of insurgent groups including a local affiliate of al Qaeda, which almost entirely controlled Anbar province until 2006 and is now believed to be regrouping there again.
A cousin of one of the people who died in the explosion said the violence needs to stop.
