118 Shi’ite pilgrims die in Iraq bombings

AT LEAST 118 Shi’ite pilgrims were slaughtered in attacks across Iraq yesterday, sparking fears of reprisals that could frustrate efforts by Iraqi and US forces to quell sectarian violence.

The deadliest single attack was in Hilla, south of Baghdad, where two suicide bombers triggered explosives amid a packed crowd of worshippers walking to the holy city of Karbala, police Lieutenant Karim al-Hamzawi said.

Dr Mohammed Timini from Hilla Hospital’s emergency room said 90 pilgrims were killed and at least 160 wounded, as queues of ambulances and cars brought in scores of bloodied bodies.

“Among the wounded, there are 50 in a critical condition,” he said.

Tens of thousands of Shi’ites are making their way to Karbala, a shrine city around 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, for the Arbaeen ceremony on Friday, despite threats from Sunni militants.

Most of them are going on foot, leaving them vulnerable to attack.

Arbaeen (40 in Arabic) marks 40 days after Ashura, the holiest day on the Shi’ite calendar, commemorating the killing in 680AD of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid.

The Hilla bombings triggered fury amid the local Shi’ite population, and there was gunfire as militants accused security forces of failing to protect the marchers from Sunni extremists.

Elsewhere in Iraq, separate attacks killed at least 28 more Shiites.

In Baghdad, eight pilgrims died when their minibus was raked with bullets by unknown gunmen in the Sunni district of Dura, while 15 more were killed and 47 wounded in three separate car bombings in other parts of the city.

Another five were gunned down in two attacks near Latifiyah, south of the capital. At least 15 more were wounded.

Joint operations by US and Iraqi forces, meanwhile, netted a group of senior al-Qaida linked insurgents, Iraqi interior ministry operations director Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf said.

Success against al-Qaida’s Sunni militants came as security forces also put pressure on radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, probing his eastern Baghdad stronghold and targeting supporters.

Khalaf said 29 al-Qaida members had been rounded up since Sunday in northern Iraq, including two brothers of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.

Baghdadi heads the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq”, an umbrella body for Sunni insurgent groups run by al-Qaida, and — along with al-Qaida kingpin Abu Ayyub al-Masri — is one of Iraq’s most wanted men.

Nine US soldiers were killed and four more wounded in a single day in two bomb attacks on their convoys, the US military said.

In one attack in Salaheddin province on Monday, six soldiers from Task Force Lightning died and three more were wounded, a statement said. Three other Task Force Lightning troops were killed in Diyala province, north of Baghdad.

The deaths brought to at least 3,179 the US military’s losses since the March 2003 invasion.

Smoke continued to rise from the car-bombed ruins of Baghdad’s historic book market.

Security officials said 30 people were killed and 65 wounded in Monday’s blast which destroyed the Mutanabi Street market, the symbolic heart of Iraq’s intellectual life.