Three Sunni mosques were bombed in Iraq's Babil province, two days after the execution of a prominent Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia, a provincial security source said on Monday.The attacks occurred late Sunday night when gunmen wearing military uniforms bombed a Sunni mosque in the city of Hilla, some 100 km south of Baghdad, Xinhua reported.Another group detonated bombs at a mosque in the village of Sinjar, just north of Hilla, and at a third mosque in the town of Iskandriyah, some 50 km north of Hilla, the source said.
Iraqi security forces immediately cordoned off the site and intensified security measures for fear of reprisal attacks between the Sunni and Shia communities in the province.The incident came as outrage flared among Shia Muslims on Saturday immediately after the Saudi interior ministry announced the execution of 47 people on terrorist charges, including prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.After the execution, Iraqi Shia officials and politicians condemned the implementation of the death sentence against al-Nimr and accused Saudi Arabia of intending to fuel sectarian strife in the region.