(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-25 16:59

Staff from the hospital morgue place a body inside a body bag outside a hospital morgue in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad September 24, 2007. Three unidentified bodies were found by Iraqi forces and they were brought to the hospital morgue in Baquba on Monday, the Iraqi army said. [Reuters]

BAQUBA, Iraq -- At least 28 people were killed and 34 wounded in a devastating attack by a suicide bomber inside a mosque near Iraq's restive city of Baquba, police and a medical official said on Tuesday.

The attack Monday evening targetted a reconciliation meeting between two feared militias at Shifta village west of Baquba during the evening meal that breaks the daytime fast observed by Muslims during Ramadan.

Seven policemen, including three high ranking officers, were killed when the suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in the crowded mosque.

"We have a total of 28 people killed and 34 wounded," police Brigadier General Khaider al-Timimi told AFP, updating an earlier toll.

His casualties figures were confirmed by the chief of the morgue in Baquba, Ahmed Fouad.

An Iraqi security official said the reconciliation meeting was between the Shiite Mahdi Army militia and the Sunni insurgent group, the Brigades of the 1920 Revolution.

In recent months the Brigades of 1920 Revolution has been joining forces with the US military in securing volatile Sunni Arab regions across Iraq.

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