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BAGHDAD — Violence erupted north of Baghdad on Friday as a suicide bomber attacked at a mosque, and then several hours later another suicide bomber attacked the hospital where the wounded were being treated.
Nineteen people died in the attacks, which occurred in Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein. Among the dead were the mosque’s imam and several local government officials, a local security official said. At least 49 people were wounded.
The attacks came just a day after a suicide bomber in the western city of Ramadi detonated an explosive device at the entrance to a local hospital as ambulances carrying the wounded arrived from the scene of another bombing.
In Tikrit about 1 p.m. on Friday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in the center of the mosque during Friday Prayer, causing the dome to collapse onto worshipers. Seconds later, an improvised explosive device was detonated just outside the mosque. Seventeen people died in the explosions, including two members of the provincial council, a judge and a police colonel, and 47 were wounded.
Six hours later, another suicide bomber detonated a device at the hospital where a member of Parliament from the province was visiting the wounded. Two people died in that attack, including a guard for the member of Parliament; two people were wounded.
Tikrit, a predominantly Sunni city and the capital of Salahuddin Province, remains one ofIraq’s more violent cities.
Two months ago, gunmen wearing police uniforms and suicide vests stormed the office of the provincial council in Tikrit, killing at least 45 and wounding nearly 100. In January, a suicide bomber attacked a crowd of prospective police recruits, killing at least 49 people and wounding more than 100.
The attack on Friday raised more questions about security in the city. The mosque is in a heavily fortified area, where many of the province’s military and political leaders live.
“I don’t know how they were able to put these explosive devices in such a secure area,” said Hussein al-Shatub, a member of the local provincial council who said he was standing at the gate to the mosque at the time of the attack.
“I was at the main gate of mosque on my way to pray when the explosion occurred,” Mr. Shatub said. “I started evacuating injured people to the hospital. It was a huge explosion.”
Mr. Shatub blamed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which claimed responsibility for the attack on the provincial council office two months ago.
“They want to show the world they exist and did this as revenge for Osama bin Laden’s death,” he said.
Omar Al-Jawoshy and Khalid D. Ali contributed reporting from Baghdad. An employee for The New York Times contributed reporting from Tikrit, Iraq
.A version of this article appeared in print on June 4, 2011, on page A5 of the New York edition with the headline: In Iraqi City, Bombers Kill At Mosque And Hospital.
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