Iraq mosque bomber uses beggar attire,29 killed

He said the bomber had a bandaged hand and appeared to pose no threat.

The suicide bomber who killed 29 people at Baghdads largest Sunni mosque disguised himself as an injured beggar and attended prayers there for nearly a week,a senior religious figure said Monday.

The attack hit Sunnis praying at a special service late Sunday and appeared calculated to try to re-ignite widespread violence in Iraq just months before US troops are to complete their withdrawal.

The bomber,who pretended to be a beggar,had attended prayers for six straight days at the Umm al-Qura mosque in western Baghdad, said Sheik Ahmed Abdul Gafur al-Samarraie,head of an endowment that oversees all Sunni religious sites nationwide. He said the bomber had a bandaged hand and appeared to pose no threat.

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When his face became familiar to the guards they didnt search him last night, al-Samarraie told reporters at the mosque,where blood still stained the marble floors and stairs. He said guards first became suspicious when they saw the man moving through the crowd trying to get close to al-Samarraie and took him outside. But the man returned through a back door and blew himself up when he was a few steps away from al-Samarraie.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Sundays bombing,but suicide attacks generally are a hallmark of al-Qaeda,which is dominated by Sunnis. Intelligence officials have speculated that al-Qaeda will do almost anything to spark new sectarian violence,but the group recently had focused on attacking Iraqi security forces.