YEREVAN, AUGUST 22, ARMENPRESS. A suicide bomber and several gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque in a volatile province outside Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least 64 people and wounding more than 60, as reports “Armenpress”, Iraqi officials said.

The death toll from the attack is expected to increase.

The attack came just as Baghdad is trying to build a cross-community government to fight the Sunni Islamic State (IS), whose rise has alarmed Western powers.

A morgue official in Diyala province north of Baghdad said 68 people had been killed in the sectarian attack staged on the Muslim day of prayer. Ambulances took the bodies 60 km (40 miles) to the provincial capital of Baquba,

The attack on the Musab bin Omair Mosque in Imam Wais village, some 120 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, began with a suicide bombing near the entrance, after which gunmen poured in and opened fire on the worshippers.

Officials in Imam Wais said Iraqi security forces and Shia militiamen raced to the scene of the attack to reinforce security but stumbled upon bombs planted by the militants, which allowed the attackers to flee. Four Shia militiamen were killed and thirteen wounded by the blasts.