Third bombing kills more pilgrims
BAGHDAD – Bombers struck Shiite pilgrims Saturday for a third consecutive day, killing at least three people in the latest in a series of attacks apparently aimed at stoking sectarian tension.
The attacks have targeted pilgrims headed for the Shiite city of Karbala, where hundreds of thousands of people have gathered for festivities that culminate this morning.
No group has claimed responsibility, but assaults on Shiite civilians have been carried out for years by Sunni extremists such as al-Qaida in Iraq.
The latest attack occurred about 9 a.m. Saturday when a car bomb exploded in the north Baghdad neighborhood of Shaab as pilgrims were boarding minibuses bound for Karbala, 50 miles to the south.
Iraqi police and hospital employees said six people were killed and 11 injured. The U.S. military put the toll at three dead and eight injured.
On Friday, a passenger van packed with explosives blew up at a bus station in Balad, north of Baghdad. The Balad hospital director, Qassim Hatam al-Qaisi, said nine people were killed and 40 were wounded.
A female suicide bomber killed 18 pilgrims Thursday when she detonated explosives by the side of a road in Latifiyah, 20 miles south of the capital.
The attacks have heightened concern that extremists are seeking to re-ignite the firestorm of sectarian massacres that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war two years ago before thousands of American reinforcements were rushed to the country.
The violence, however, did little to deter Shiite pilgrims who descended on Karbala for the festival, known as Shabaniyah, that marks the birth of Imam Mohammed al-Mahdi – known as the “Hidden Iman” – a Shiite saint who disappeared in the 9th century.
Devout Shiites believe he will return some day to usher in peace and harmony in the world.
“I am determined to celebrate this occasion despite all the hardships such as heat and security concerns,” said Ahmed Hussein, 21, a laborer who walked for three days from Baghdad to Karbala.
Pilgrims moved Saturday through the center of Karbala near the two main, golden-domed shrines. Helicopters hovered over the area, and Iraqi snipers stood guard on the roofs watching for any sign of trouble.
Helicopters dropped leaflets containing pictures of men wanted by the police and urging people not to approach “suspicious items” that could be bombs.