In an audacious attack, a man in Tal Afar, northern Iraq shot dead the prayer leader at the Taqwa mosque during Friday prayers with an assault rifle before targeting other worshipers and detonating a suicide belt. At least 15 people were killed and over 100 others were wounded. The mosque was primarily attended by Sunni Arabs and the prayer leader, Abdel Satar Hassan, was a member of the Iraq Islamic Party, the largest Sunni political group.1

• 1. Timothy Williams and Sa’ad Al-Izzi, “Attacker Kills 15 in Iraqi Mosque,” New York Times, October 17, 2009, at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/world/middleeast/17iraq.html?ref=today...