Suicide bombing in a Shiite mosque

A mob angered by an al-Qaida-linked suicide bombing in a &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/hotspots/2005/05/20/59883.html ' target=_blank>Shite mosque set a KFC restaurant afire in overnight rioting, killing six employees and bringing the day's overall death toll to 11, police said Tuesday.

Security in Karachi shifted into "high alert," said Rauf Siddiqi, home minister of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital. "These incidents are happening one after the other. We are trying to find a link between them," he told the private Geo television station. "This is a criminal and merciless attack."

The bomber slipped into the mosque during a shootout with police that left another attacker and two officers dead, and blew himself up during evening prayers Monday, killing one worshipper and wounding 20, reports ABC News.

Police claim the plan was for one militant to set off a blast inside the mosque and for the others to stay outside and gun down survivors as they tried to escape the building.

The charred head of a man believed to be the suicide bomber sat in a pool of blood inside the mosque, while a leg severed at the knee and with a sandal still on the foot lay several metres away, witnesses said.

One worshipper died at a private clinic, while 21 people, four in a critical condition, were admitted to three hospitals in Karachi.

&to=http:// english.pravda.ru/columnists/2002/10/24/38624.html ' target=_blank>Sunni Muslim extremists were suspected in the mosque attack, and it was unclear why the KFC restaurant was targeted in retaliatory rioting, along with arson attacks on vehicles, shops, three bank branches and three petrol stations.