US condemns deadly terror attack in Iraq mosque

Washington: The United States denounced a deadly suicide attack at a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq.
The attack, the deadliest in six months, is likely to heighten tensions in Iraq which is grappling with more than a month of protests in Sunni-majority areas, amid demands that Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki stand down.

In a statement, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland described the bombing at the mosque in Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometers from Baghdad, as “horrific and heinous.”
No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Sunni militants often launch attacks in a bid to destabilize the Iraqi government and push it back toward sectarian violence that peaked between 2005 and 2008, in the wake of the US-led war that ousted long-time dictator Saddam Hussein