Death toll rises to 18 after blast outside mosque in Iraq's Baquba

At least 18 people were killed in an explosion outside a Sunni Muslim mosque in Baquba, about 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police and medics said on Friday.

Attacks on Sunni and Shi'ite mosques, security forces and tribal leaders have spread since security forces raided a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk a month ago, igniting clashes and fuelling fears of a slide back into all-out inter-communal war. Iraq has grown more volatile as the civil war in neighboring Syria strains fragile relations between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. (Reuters)