BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Suicide bombers - one of whom was dressed as a woman - blasted worshippers as they left a Shiite mosque after prayer services yesterday, killing at least 79 people and wounding more than 160 in the deadliest attack in Iraq this year.

The horrific attack at the Buratha mosque, affiliated with the country's main Shiite political party, is likely to further stoke tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. The US ambassador warned that sectarian civil war in Iraq could enflame the entire Middle East.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Falah al-Mohammedawi said the blasts were caused by two suicide attackers, one of whom was clad in a black abaya, the full-length robes worn by devout Muslim women. It was unclear whether the attacker was a man wearing women's robes to better conceal the explosives.

Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, the preacher at the mosque and one of the country's leading politicians, said there were three assailants. One came through the women's security checkpoint and blew up first, he said.

Al-Sagheer, who was not injured, said another raced into the mosque's courtyard while a third tried to enter his office before they both detonated their explosives.

However, al-Mohammedawi insisted there were two attackers. An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw evidence of two blasts - one at the outer wall surrounding the compound and another at the entrance to the mosque building.

The attack occurred as worshippers were leaving the north Baghdad mosque after prayers yesterday, the main weekly religious service. It occurred several hours after the Interior Ministry warned the public to avoid crowds near mosques and markets due to a car bomb threat.

Rescuers raced to and from the mosque, ferrying bodies from the walled compound on blood-soaked wooden pushcarts and loading them on the beds of pickup trucks. City officials urged Iraqis to donate blood for those wounded.

Meanwhile, the US military reported the deaths of three more American service members, including one who died yesterday from wounds suffered in western Baghdad. Two Americans were killed Thursday, including a Marine in Anbar province and a soldier near Beiji, 250 kilometers (155 miles) to the north, the military said.

The mosque attack was the second in as many days against a Shiite religious site. On Thursday, a car bomb exploded about 300 meters from the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, killing 10 people. Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, is the most sacred city in Iraq for Shiite Muslims.
No group claimed responsibility for either attack, although suspicion fell on Sunni Muslim extremists responsible for numerous bombings against Shiite civilians.

However, several Iraqi figures complained Friday that the US and British intervention had backfired, prompting al-Jaafari's supporters to dig in their heels against what many Iraqis considered foreign interference.

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