Suicide bombers attempt holy day rampage

Four suicide bombers blew themselves up in Iraq today, killing at least six people as Shiite Muslim worshippers around the country celebrated the holiest day of the year.

The latest attacks came after a day on which at least 36 people were killed in a string of attacks.

In another incident, an explosion inside a public bus in Baghdad killed at least one child and five adults.

The bus was stopped in the northern Kadhimiya neighbourhood, which is predominantly Shiite. The were no further details on the explosion or casualties.

Saturday’s bombings, during the religious festival of Ashoura, came despite stepped-up security around the country. Authorities had hoped to prevent a repeat of last year’s attacks during Ashoura in which insurgents killed at least 181 people in twin blasts in Karbala and Baghdad.

The attacks also came as a five-member US Congressional delegation that includes Senator Hillary Clinton, a Democrat from New York, met with Iraqi government officials in Baghdad’s heavily fortified green zone.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber walked into a tent outside a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad and blew himself up, killing at least three people and injuring 10, police captain Hussain al-Ani said.

Earlier reports said seven people died. About 50 people were inside the tent attending a funeral.

It was unclear why the attacker blew himself up inside a tent full of Sunnis, set up outside the Fatah Pasha mosque, but similar structures were set up outside Shiite mosques for the Ashoura celebration.

Most attacks by insurgents – who are thought to be predominantly Sunni extremists – are aimed at Shiites.

Another suicide bomber who tried to kill a group Iraqi National Guard troops near a mosque in northwest Baghdad detonated prematurely and killed only himself.

A third bomber blew up a car outside an Iraqi National Guard base in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing one Iraqi guardsman and wounding another, police Col. Muthafar Shahab said. The suicide bomber also died in the blast.

A fourth suicide bomber blew up his car at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Latifiya, 20 miles south of the capital, killing two Iraqi soldiers.

Gunmen also holed up in a building and opened fire on a funeral procession in Baghdad in which mourners were carrying coffins of some of the dead killed on Friday in a bombing at the capital’s al-Khadimain mosque, witnesses said.

Iraqi National Guard troops guarding the procession foiled that attack, returning fire and capturing one of the assailants.

Authorities, bracing for violence Saturday, stepped up security around the country. In Karbala, vehicle traffic – even motorcycles, bikes and pushcarts - was prohibited in an attempt to avert bomb attacks.

Insurgents staged five attacks on Friday leaving at least 36 people dead, and Shiites blamed radical Sunni Muslim insurgents, who have staged car bombs, shootings and kidnappings to try to destabilise Iraq’s new government.

“Those infidel Wahhabis, those Osama bin Laden followers, they did this because they hate Shiites,” said Sari Abdullah, a worshipper at Baghdad’s al-Khadimain mosque who was injured by shrapnel from the explosion Friday. “They are afraid of us. They are not Muslims. They are infidels.”

A militant website posted claims of responsibility from the al Qaida affiliate in Iraq for the Baqouba bombing and an attack on a police checkpoint in Baghdad. There was no way to verify the claims.