Global General
4 Shiite pilgrims killed, 36 injured in Baghdad bomb attacks
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-24 02:46
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BAGHDAD: Four Shiite pilgrims were killed and 36 others injured in separate bomb attacks which targeted Shiite Muslims marking Ashura religious festival in Baghdad on Wednesday evening, an Interior Ministry source said.
The bomb exploded when they were travelling on foot to the holy Shiite city of Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad, the source said.
Meanwhile, a Shiite pilgrim was killed and four others were wounded when an explosive charge detonated at a tent set up outside a Shiite mosque in central Baghdad district of Karradah for Shiite worshippers to celebrate the Ashura festival, the source added.
Four more pilgrims were wounded on Wednesday evening when a roadside bomb struck a group of Shiite pilgrims who were walking to Karbala in Saidiyah neighborhood in southern Baghdad, he said.
Insurgents frequently attack Shiite pilgrims who gather to perform their communal rituals, including Ashura, the holiest day on the Shiite Islamic calendar. It is a commemoration of the death in 680 AD of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.
