March 8, 2007 in Nation/World

Attacks on pilgrims kill at least 30 in Iraq

Alexandra Zavis Los Angeles Times
 
Associated Press photo

A man grieves beside the bodies of victims of Tuesday’s suicide bomber attacks on Shiite Muslim pilgrims in Hillah, Iraq, on Wednesday. Violence Wednesday killed at least 30 more pilgrims.
(Full-size photo)

Related news

Request for extra forces approved

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has approved a request by the new U.S. commander in Iraq for an extra 2,200 military police to help deal with an anticipated increase in detainees during the Baghdad security crackdown, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

Gates said that the request for extra MPs is in addition to the 21,500 combat troops that President Bush is sending for the Baghdad security plan, along with 2,400 support troops.

The day-to-day commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, has recommended that the higher troop level be maintained until February 2008, the New York Times reported on its Web site Wednesday night. Odierno said the extra troops are needed to support a sustained effort to win over the Iraqi populace.

Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Marching under blood-spattered banners, mourners carried coffins Wednesday through streets still littered with pieces of flesh and debris, as the death toll from three consecutive days of attacks on Shiite Muslim pilgrims climbed to 188.

At least 30 people were killed in fresh attacks Wednesday on some of the more than 1 million pilgrims streaming to the holy city of Karbala for weekend rites commemorating the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Muhammad and one of Shiite Islam’s holiest figures.

Overwhelmed health officials said a lack of blood, medicine and ambulances contributed to the escalating toll.

The persistent attacks on Shiite Muslims came despite a major U.S. and Iraqi crackdown in Baghdad, which officials believe has contributed to a drop in nightly execution-style killings blamed mostly on Shiite militiamen.

In Balad Ruz, a religiously mixed town northeast of the capital, a suicide bomber walked into a cafe frequented by members of the ethnic Kurdish minority and blew himself up before dusk Wednesday, police said. At least 26 people were killed and 30 injured in the blast.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed and another injured when a bomb exploded during efforts to clear a road of explosives northwest of the capital, the military said. The deaths lifted the number of U.S. personnel killed in the war to 3,188, according to the Web site icasualties.org, which tracks casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint set up to protect pilgrims along a busy southern highway, killing 22 people, 12 of them police, a U.S. military statement said. Another bomb and scattered shootings directed at pilgrims killed eight more people, police said.

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