Iraqi security officials said parliament lawmaker Khalid al-Fahdawi, a Sunni, was among the dead in the 9:40 pm attack.
Maj Gen Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Baghdad’s military operations command, confirmed the bombing happened inside the Um al-Qura mosque during prayers in the western Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Jamiaah. The blue-domed building is the largest Sunni mosque in Baghdad.
“I heard something like a very severe wind storm, with smoke and darkness, and shots by the guards,” said an eyewitness Mohammad Mustafa, who hit in the hand by shrapnel.
That the bomber detonated his explosives vest inside the mosque is particularly alarming, as it is reminiscent of a 2006 attack on a Shiite shrine in the Sunni city of Samarra that fuelled widespread sectarian violence and nearly ignited a nationwide civil war.
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