Bomb kills 7 at Baghdad Sunni mosque-police

BAGHDAD, July 14 (Reuters) A bomb planted in the street killed at least seven people and wounded five as they left a Sunni mosque in northern Baghdad after Friday prayers, police said.

Further details of the incident at the Ismail al-Qubaisi mosque were not immediately available.

At around the same time, six mortar rounds hit a Shi'ite mosque in Balad Ruz, a town northeast of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding five, police said.

Scores of people have been killed in tit-for-tat sectarian violence beteen Shi'ite and minority Sunni Muslims over the past week in the Iraqi capital.

Sunni and Shi'ite mosques were targeted in bomb and mortar attacks after Friday prayers last week, killing and wounding dozens.

The attacks triggered this week's surge in sectarian violence that has sparked renewed fears of a slide to civil war.

Mosques have been frequent targets in the communal bloodletting since a revered Shi'ite mosque in the town of Samarra north of Baghdad was blown up on February 22.

Reuters PKS GC1649