BAQUBA, April 12: Twenty-six people were killed in a car bombing near a mosque in a restive area of Iraq on Wednesday, the latest in a wave of sectarian attacks plaguing the country.

Forty other people were wounded when the bomb went off in a busy market street as worshippers were leaving the mosque in the town of Howaider, near Baquba, 60kms northeast of Baghdad.

“The car full of explosives was parked close to the mosque and those killed were worshippers who were leaving the sanctuary after prayers,” a defence ministry official said.

Sectarian violence has engulfed the country since the bombing of a shrine in Samarra in February, leaving hundreds of people dead and raising warnings that the country was in the throes of civil war.

Wednesday’s strike came after parliament announced it would convene next week in a bid to break months of deadlock on the formation of a new government, blocked by disputes over the fate of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. —AFP