Suicide bomber kills 4 at Iraq mosque
Insurgents target Baghdad hotel in separate attack
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A vehicle burns and two bodies lie on the ground near a Shiite Muslim mosque in Ba'qubah, Iraq, where a bomb exploded Friday.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A man on a bicycle packed with explosives blew himself up in front of a mosque during Friday prayers in the eastern Iraqi town of Ba'qubah, killing four people and wounding dozens, U.S.-led coalition officials said.
A 4th Infantry Division officer said an improvised explosive device was inside a propane tank strapped to the back of the bike.
The bomber was at a gate shouting to be let in to the Shiite Muslim mosque, but he was turned away, the officer said. The man then detonated the explosive, killing himself and the four others, the officier said.
He said 36 people were wounded, with four in serious condition at a hospital. He said the coalition suffered no casualties.
Several vehicles were damaged in the blast, and news footage showed a burning car, injured people and distraught, panicky bystanders.
"As I was sitting on the television car filming the Friday prayers in front of the Sadeq mosque," a local journalist said, "a car -- I think, a taxi -- exploded, and I was hit by broken glass of windows."
Ba'qubah is a predominately Sunni Muslim town about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Baghdad -- a region where opposition to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq runs high.
It was unclear if Friday's blast reflects religious tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but there have been other bombings near religious sites in recent months.
Last month, a bomb went off at a Sunni mosque in Baghdad, and it was blamed on Shiites. In November, a bomb detonated outside a Shiite shrine in Karbala in central Iraq. Three people were killed in both blasts.
In August, a car bomb killed at least 83 people at the Imam Ali Mosque in the south-central town of Najaf. Among the fatalities was a prominent Shiite cleric.
Shiites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population and suffered under the rule of Saddam Hussein, who is a Sunni.
Earlier Friday, insurgents staged an attack on a hotel in central Baghdad, according to security guards.
The guards said four men jumped out of two cars at about 6 a.m. Two of the men fired rocket-propelled grenades at the Bourj al-Hayat Hotel, the guards said. The others exchanged machine-gun fire with the guards.
Two of the rocket-propelled grenades struck the hotel's fourth floor. No casualties were reported.
Many of the Iraqi capital's downtown hotels house Western expatriates working with reconstruction firms and security companies.
Suspects captured in Tikrit
About 300 members of the 4th Infantry Division fanned across Saddam's ancestral homeland of Tikrit, raiding homes and businesses overnight, a military spokesman said Friday.
A 4th Infantry public affairs officer said 12 suspected members of the Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary forces were captured without incident in the north-central city.
In other raids in northern Iraq, six suspected insurgents were detained. All are believed to have taken part in anti-U.S. activities, the coalition said.
Black Hawk crash investigated
After Thursday's crash of a Black Hawk helicopter near Fallujah, the U.S. Army launched an investigation to determine whether an attack or mechanical problems brought the aircraft down.
The UH-60 transport chopper was on a medical evacuation mission when it crashed around 2:20 p.m. (6:20 a.m. ET) Thursday, military officials said. It was the latest of several fatal chopper crashes and the third in Fallujah since November. The city is west of Baghdad in a region known as the "Sunni Triangle," a hotbed of anti-U.S. activity.
Investigators also are looking into an apparent attack Thursday on a C-5 cargo plane that had to limp back to Baghdad International Airport when one of its engines exploded shortly after takeoff.
The U.S. military said it appeared the plane was hit by fire from the ground, but it is not clear what weapon was used.
None of the 63 people on board were injured.
Other developments
• A U.S. Army task force is taking aim at the improvised explosive devices used to attack American forces, a senior official said Thursday. Members already in Iraq are using detection equipment that can jam the radio frequency used to detonate the devices remotely, officials said. They also are examining forensic evidence after attacks to learn how the bombs are constructed.
• The U.S. military freed dozens of Iraqis on Thursday following the announcement of amnesty aimed at easing resentment over the detention of thousands of suspected insurgents. However, officials said the prisoners released from the Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad were not part of the amnesty agreement. (Full story)
• Suspected insurgents launched a mortar strike Wednesday night that killed a U.S. soldier at a logistical base west of Baghdad, the Coalition Press Information Center said. Thirty soldiers were wounded by the mortar rounds, the center said, and two other soldiers were slightly wounded after the attack. Their injuries weren't a direct result of the blast, according to the coalition.
