BAGHDAD, Nov 18: Two suicide bombers strapped with explosives killed 77 people and reduced two crowded mosques to rubble during Friday prayers in a northeastern Iraqi town, deepening the country’s sectarian conflict.

More bodies were trapped in the rubble, said Ibrahim Ahmed Bajalan, a member of the local council in Khanaqin. “I think there are more than 100 people dead,” he said. Another lesser blast was reported near a bank in the town.

Kamran Ahmed, the director of Khanaqin hospital, said 77 people had been confirmed killed and 80 were wounded. He said many bodies were too badly mutilated to identify.

The attacks in the mixed Shia and Kurdish town near the border with Iran seemed certain to fuel sectarian tensions in the run-up to a December 15 election that Washington hopes will pave the way for peace and democracy.

Police said the bombers entered the small Sheikh Murad and Khanaqin Grand mosques with explosive belts strapped to their waists and detonated themselves when the buildings were at their busiest — during Friday prayers.

BAGHDAD BLASTS: In Baghdad earlier on Friday, two suicide truck bombs failed to pierce the perimeter of a major hotel and destroyed an apartment block instead, killing at least six people, including two children.