BAGHDAD (AP) — Bombs exploded outside two Sunni mosques in Baghdad late Saturday, killing at least 21 people leaving prayers and extending a wave of daily violence rippling across Iraq since the start of the holy month of Ramadan, authorities said.
A separate attack at a funeral northeast of the capital killed at least three others.
Police said the first Baghdad blast went off around 10 p.m. near the gate of the Khalid bin al-Walid mosque in the capital's southern Dora neighborhood, a largely Sunni Muslim area. It struck just after the end of special late-evening prayers held during Ramadan.
At least 16 people were killed and 31 were wounded, police said. A hospital official confirmed the casualty toll.
Soon after, a car bomb exploded at another Sunni worship center, the Mullah Huwaish mosque, in the Hay al-Jami'a area in western Baghdad. That blast killed five and wounded 19, according to police and health officials.
Iraq is weathering its worst eruption of violence in half a decade, raising fears the country is heading back toward the widespread sectarian fighting that peaked in 2006 and 2007. More than 2,600 people have been killed since the start of April.
The pace of the bloodshed has picked up since Ramadan began Wednesday, including a suicide bombing at a coffee shop in the northern city of Kirkuk late Friday that killed dozens.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the recent wave of attacks.
Sunni extremists, including al-Qaeda's Iraq branch, frequently target Shiites, security forces and civil servants in an effort to undermine the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. They also could be behind Saturday's attack on the Sunni mosques, hoping that the bombings will spark a sectarian backlash against Shiites.
Shiite militias, which have been remobilizing and sending fighters to confront mostly Sunni rebels in neighboring Syria, also could be to blame.
Once-rare attacks on Sunni places of worship have risen in recent months as sectarian tensions grow, raising the prospect that Shiite militias are growing more active.
Iraq's minority Sunnis have been protesting for months against the Shiite-led government, alleging they receive second-class treatment. Sunni militant groups have tried to tap into that anger by linking their cause to that of the demonstrators.
The bureaucracy: the new fourth branch of government. The bureaucracy is permanent, unaccountable, unelected and choking us like a weed. The bureaucrat exists, generating nothing of value, using perceived problems to justify his existence.
I've been saying for a while now that the best strategy for the USA would be to back away from these people and let them get back to killing and hating each other. It is clear in the absence of the good ol USA trying to "help" [and thereby becoming the most hated entity on the planet] these Sunnis and Shiites will remember how much they hate each other and resume their holy war against themselves.
What was Geo Bush thinking that he could help these people appreciate and love democracy of access to representation by all members of society? It was a stretch then, a gamble, but it is now clearly a known fact that we had NO BUSINESS getting involved in Muslim nation internal affairs.
The bureaucracy: the new fourth branch of government. The bureaucracy is permanent, unaccountable, unelected and choking us like a weed. The bureaucrat exists, generating nothing of value, using perceived problems to justify his existence.
And one President eve went so far as to restrain from military operations during Ramadan. I think it was Bill Clinton. Do the Sunnis get that kind of respect from the Shiites? Now realize how they treat each other and how foreign our values are to them.
DOAH!!!
The bureaucracy: the new fourth branch of government. The bureaucracy is permanent, unaccountable, unelected and choking us like a weed. The bureaucrat exists, generating nothing of value, using perceived problems to justify his existence.
RIGHT'S RIGHT 
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Sat Jul 13, 2013 9:25 pm
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