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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Female suicide bomber kills dozens in Iraq

Victims were resting during pilgrimage

An Iraqi woman cries at the site of a suicide bombing near Musayyib, Iraq, on  Friday. The attack on a tent filled with women and children killed 40 people and wounded about 80.  (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Robert H. Reid Associated Press

BAGHDAD – A female suicide bomber struck a tent filled with women and children resting during a pilgrimage south of Baghdad on Friday, killing 40 people and wounding about 80 in the deadliest of three straight days of attacks against Shiite worshippers.

The grisly assault, which also appeared to be the deadliest in Iraq this year, demonstrates the determination of some extremists to reignite sectarian warfare. It also underscores how fragile security remains here, even as the U.S. turns over more responsibility to the Iraqis.

Witnesses said many of the injured were hurt in a stampede as terrified survivors – most of them poor Shiites exhausted after days of walking – scrambled away from the tent in terror.

They left behind piles of clothing, small rugs and toddlers’ strollers, Associated Press Television News video showed.

“It was a horrific scene with dead and screaming injured people on the ground,” said Sadiya Kadom, 40, a Baghdad resident who was near the tent when the blast occurred.

No group claimed responsibility. But suicide bombings against Shiite civilians are the signature attack of al-Qaida in Iraq, which U.S. commanders say has been severely weakened but not defeated.

“What kind of belief system do these people have? Are they monsters?” a man shouted as he held his dazed and wounded son, wrapped in a red and yellow blanket.

The bomber was successful in detonating her explosives despite a massive security operation by Iraqi authorities to protect the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims streaming into the Shiite holy city of Karbala for religious rituals that culminate Monday.

The vast numbers of pilgrims and the distances many of them must travel make it all but impossible to guarantee their safety against determined extremist groups willing to die.

The blast occurred at midday near a dusty stretch of road flanked by palm trees alongside a railroad track close to Musayyib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad and 10 miles north of Karbala.

Separate tents for men and women offer pilgrims food, beverages and a place to rest along the routes to Karbala.

Provincial health official Dr. Mohammed Abbas and the provincial police reported 40 people were killed and 81 wounded. Abbas said most of the victims were women and children.