Two Sunni mosques were bombed in Iraq on Monday, and a mosque member was shot dead, as fears of sectarian violence grew in the Middle East.

Accoridng to locals, men in military uniforms blew up mosques using IEDs south of Baghdad, while a Sunni mosque leader who makes the call to prayer was shot dead in Iskandariyah city in Iraq, AFP reported.

The Ammar bin Yasser mosque and the Al-Fateh mosque were bombed after midnight on Monday. No casualties were reported.

The bombings come after protests in Baghdad over the execution of a Shia cleric by Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

The execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia is likely to raise sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shias in the region.

Saudi Arabia had only recently opened its embassy in Baghdad after a gap of 25 years.