More than 40 Shi’a pilgrims have been killed in the latest wave of violence in the Iraqi city of Karbala.
|||Baghdad - Bombers killed at least 45 Shi'a pilgrims in Iraq on Wednesday and also struck police for a third day in a row, in a wave of violence posing a challenge to Iraqi security forces as US troops prepare to withdraw.
More than 100 people have died and hundreds have been wounded since Tuesday in bomb attacks that bear the hallmarks of Sunni Arab insurgents, showing they remain a potent threat even as Washington prepares to remove its final troops this year.
Most of Thursday's dead were pilgrims pouring into the holy Shi'a city of Karbala ahead of the culmination of an annual rite which is often attacked by Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda.
Two car bombs killed 45 people and wounded around 150 near Karbala, 80km south of Baghdad, on different roads into the city, said Mohammed al-Moussawi, head of the Karbala provincial council. The explosions struck simultaneously on the outskirts of the city outside a security cordon of checkpoints set up to protect pilgrims, he said.
An official from the Health Ministry in Baghdad put the death toll at 50, and said 203 were wounded, while police and Interior Ministry sources in the capital said they had heard suicide bombers wearing explosive vests were involved.
“Again the infidel terrorists and their criminal assistants have added a new page to their black criminal record,” Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'a, said in a statement, pledging to pursue security for Iraqis, and justice.
Pilgrims walk for days from cities across Iraq and also come from neighbouring countries to attend rites at Iraqi holy sites.
Earlier, a suicide bomber drove a car into a police headquarters in volatile Diyala province, killing at least three people and wounding around 30, the latest in a series of attacks against the security forces that began on Tuesday.
Around 65 people have died in the three days of assaults on police, including 49 police recruits blown up while queuing for jobs in ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit on Tuesday.
The bomber in Diyala blew up the car at the main gate of the police headquarters in the city of Baquba, 65km northeast of Baghdad, police said. - Reuters
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/suicide-bombers-target-karbala-pilgrims-1.1014871
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