More than 50 killed by militants in Iraq

BAGHDAD – Militants struck across the Iraqi capital Wednesday, killing more than 50 people, including 32 in a suicide bombing that targeted pilgrims commemorating a revered Shiite saint, Iraqi police said.

The attacks – the deadliest of which occurred in northern Baghdad’s predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah – offered a clear indication of the push by insurgents to exploit Iraq’s political vacuum and destabilize the country as U.S. troops head home.

Police said the bloody suicide bombing that killed 32 and wounded more than 90 people, split the hot Wednesday evening air as Shiite pilgrims were about to cross a bridge leading to a shrine in the Shiite Kazimiyah neighborhood where a revered imam is buried.

Militants were able to strike even as security forces were on high alert in the capital, where Shiite pilgrims from all over Iraq converged on a mosque in the northern Baghdad neighborhood to mark the anniversary of the death of Moussa al-Kadhim, the seventh imam.

A vehicle ban was in place across Kazimiyah, and 200,000 members of security forces were deployed along the way to the shrine, searching pilgrims for weapons at various checkpoints.

Though violence has dropped across Iraq, religious processions, holy sites and security forces are still regularly targeted by insurgents trying to re-ignite sectarian bloodshed.