Bomb attacks near mosque south of Baghdad kill 9

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least nine people were killed in bomb attacks on a Shi'ite Muslim mosque south of Baghdad on Friday, police and medics said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts, but Islamic State militants controlling large swathes of Iraq's north and west regularly target Shi'ite districts and security forces in the capital and elsewhere. A roadside bomb planted near the mosque in Yousifiya went off as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers, killing two civilians and wounding nine, the sources said. A suicide bomber later detonated his explosives-packed vest, killing seven and wounding 28 others, they said. Iraq is also gripped by a sectarian conflict mostly between Shi'ites and Sunnis that has been exacerbated by the rise of the ultra-hardline Sunni insurgents of Islamic State. (Reporting by Saif Hameed; Writing by Stephen Kalin)