By Mustafa Ahmed and Jay Deshmukh - BAGHDAD
Three suicide bombers, two of them disguised as women, killed Friday at least 69 people and wounded 130 as worshippers left a popular Baghdad Shiite mosque after weekly prayers, in the second major attack on Iraq's majority community in as many days.
The blasts took place outside northern Baghdad's Baratha mosque where the imam, or prayer leader, Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir, is an MP with the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, the largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament.
Immediately after the attack, Iraqi authorities appealed on state television for blood donations. A health ministry source was quoted as saying the bombings killed 69 people and wounded another 130.
"At least two of the bombers were dressed as women and blew themselves up inside the mosque complex," a security official told AFP, adding that 138 were wounded in the attacks.
Saghir said the "preliminary investigation shows that a woman, or a man dressed as a woman, managed to reach the security post of the female section, where the suicide bomber blew himself up causing panic and a rush by people to get out, allowing the two other terrorists to penetrate the mosque."
Describing the attacks to Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, Saghir said of the other two bombers "one went towards my private office and one was in the mosque's main prayer hall and they blew themselves up amid the crowds."
When questioned if he was the target, he added, "I can't say for sure that I was a target because there have many attempts on my life before."
Saghir's mosque packs thousands of worshippers every Friday. The cleric is known for his fiery sermons promulgating the rights of Iraq's Shiite majority.
Iraqi and US military forces quickly cordoned off the entire area as dozens of pick-up trucks, ambulances and private vehicles started to ferry the victims to hospitals.
Victims were also carried away in handcarts and blankets, as men, beating their chests in grief, searched for relatives who had attended the prayers at the mosque.
Patches of blood and dozens of shoes were left scattered outside the mosque where the bombers blew themselves up in the midst of the fleeing worshippers.
The triple attack followed a car bombing Thursday that killed 10 people in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf and came amid political deadlock as Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari refused pressure to step down.
The latest bombings evoked the February 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in the northern town of Samarra that triggered Shiite reprisals against Sunnis across Iraq.
Hundreds died in the ensuing tit-for-tat killings between the two religious groups, raising fears of civil war.
In Thursday's attack in Najaf, a car bomb exploded close to the revered Imam Ali shrine and near the offices of senior cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
In his Friday sermon, radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr blamed the US forces for Thursday's Najaf bombing.
"This is not the first time that the occupation forces and their death squads have resorted to killings," the cleric said referring to the Najaf bombing.
Sadr also blamed the US-led coalition forces for Iraq's recent wave of communal violence, charging that the United States was "killing religious Shiite clerics in order to start a sectarian strife".
Almost four months after its national election, Iraqi leaders have failed to come up with a working cabinet due to bitter wrangling between various parliamentary blocs on ministerial posts and Jaafari's candidacy.
A pause was expected in bargaining over the next government as Iraq observes a four-day weekend to celebrate the third anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime on April 9 and the birthday of Prophet Mohammed on April 10.
"At least there is no meeting today and tomorrow," a source close to the negotiations said.
British leaders hinted that Jaafari's refusal to withdraw his candidacy was aiding extremists.
"Terrorists love a vacuum," British Defence Minister John Reid said in Washington after talks with his US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld.
Jaafari reiterated Thursday his refusal to step aside and has left the decision in the hands of the parliament despite increasing calls for his withdrawal.
"I will stick to the result of the democratic process and reject any bargaining over it," he said. However, he added: "If parliament asks me to withdraw, then I will."
In recent days, a number of prominent Shiites have joined Iraq's Sunni and Kurdish leaders in demanding that Jaafari withdraw his candidacy. They accuse Jaafari of failing to stop the bloodshed in Iraq.
In response to the latest rash of violence, and with growing speculation that full blown civil war could be looming, US forces have boosted their presence in Baghdad and other cities.
US President George W. Bush said Thursday he would agree to boost or reduce the number of US troops in Iraq if commanders saw fit to do so.
But he stressed that a premature pullout "would be a huge mistake," and that "would embolden the enemy."
US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, in an interview with the BBC, said US officials were talking to insurgent groups. He however did not reveal the names of the groups.
Elsewhere, gunmen killed four Iraqis in two separate incidents in and around the restive northern city of Baquba on Friday. A US soldier was shot dead Friday, the military reported.
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