9 Killed, 9 Wounded in Attack on Pakistani Mosque

Attackers stormed into a Shiite mosque in southern Pakistan on Saturday and sprayed worshipers with automatic weapons fire, killing at least nine people -- one a 7-year-old boy -- and wounding nine others, police and hospital officials said.

The gunmen jumped off motorcycles and rushed into the Imam Bargha Mehdi mosque shortly after the call to evening prayers in this southern port city, witnesses said.

“The call for prayer had just begun, and four people on two motorcycles rode up to the gate and opened fire,” worshiper Mohammed Ali said.

The motive was not immediately clear, but Pakistan has been racked by religious violence in recent years, mostly by Sunni Muslim extremist groups targeting minority Shiites. Places of worship are often targeted.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Most of the deaths in the religious violence have been blamed on an outlawed Sunni Muslim extremist group, Sipah-e-Sahaba. A breakaway faction, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, also is blamed for attacks on Shiites.

The rivalry between Sunnis and Shiites dates to the early days of Islam, when Muslims split over who should succeed the prophet Muhammad. But most Pakistanis are Sunnis with no quarrel with Shiites.