US News

New Iraq horror

BAGHDAD — A suicide bombing in a Shiite mosque during evening prayers and other attacks north of Baghdad killed 23 people in Iraq yesterday.

The attacks were unleashed as officials announced preliminary results for local elections that showed the bloc of the country’s speaker of parliament in the lead.

The attacks are the latest in a wave that has claimed more than 2,000 lives since the start of April. It’s the bloodiest and most sustained spate of violence to hit Iraq since 2008.

The deadliest attack happened after sunset when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Shiite mosque in the village of Sabaa al-Bour, about 20 miles north of Baghdad. It killed 14 and wounded 32, police said.

Earlier, a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a police patrol in al-Athba, a village near Mosul, a police officer said.

Three civilian bystanders and one policeman were killed.