Suicide Blast Kills 5 at Mosque in Iraq

Town's Residents Denounce Insurgents

BAGHDAD, April 22 -- A suicide bomber burst into a mosque north of Baghdad on Wednesday evening and detonated explosives near worshipers, killing at least five, Iraqi authorities and witnesses said.

Shortly after the attack in Duluiyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad, residents poured into the streets to denounce al-Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group that held sway there until locals, backed by the U.S. military, drove it out in 2007.

"All the people in Duluiyah rushed to the mosque yelling and cursing al-Qaeda," said Shaalan al-Jubory, a spokesman for the local paramilitary group formed to fight the insurgents.

Lt. Uday Mohamed al-Jubory, a local police official, said the bomber initially approached a police station adjacent to the mosque. "One of the shopkeepers realized he's a stranger and asked him to stop," Jubory said. "But he ran toward the mosque and blew himself up."

Jubory said the bomber was roughly 20 years old. He said the man had entered the town on foot earlier in the day through a checkpoint where only vehicles are searched.

The attack was the latest in a recent wave of suicide bombings that bear the trademarks of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The group's leaders announced in recent weeks that they would step up efforts to attack U.S. forces and their allies in Iraq.

The Sunni paramilitary groups created by the U.S. military, known both as Awakening Councils and Sons of Iraq, have been a prime target for insurgents. Their leaders have taken control of Duluiyah and several other communities that were beholden to al-Qaeda in Iraq during the height of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007.

Kamil al-Jubory, a tribal leader in Duluiyah, said al-Qaeda in Iraq had recently stepped up efforts to woo Awakening members. The U.S. military had stopped paying Sons of Iraq in recent months and transferred control of the groups to the Shiite-led Iraqi government. Many Sons of Iraq accuse the government of undermining the groups by arresting leaders and paying members late.

"Al-Qaeda started two weeks ago to intensify their efforts to reorganize themselves by convincing Awakening members and the people of the villages to join them, seizing on the frustration and the fear that hit them after the Iraqi government began to chase them," Jubory said.

Also on Wednesday, the U.S. military announced that a soldier was killed in combat in eastern Baghdad. The military provided no details about the attack.

Meanwhile, the U.N. mission in Iraq announced Wednesday that it had distributed copies of long-awaited reports on disputed territories in northern Iraq to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders. The nonbinding reports were created to help Iraqis sort out competing claims between Kurds and Arabs over control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and other areas.

The main report dealt with Kirkuk. The United Nations laid out four options, none of which calls for a division of Kirkuk's province, Tamim. People familiar with the report have said it offers alternatives for joint administration of the province by the Baghdad government and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq.

Staffan de Mistura, the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, said in a statement that he hoped the reports will allow parties to "start a process of concrete dialogue."