Pilgrims attacked in Iraq as troop pullouts announced
A suicide car bomber blew himself up yesterday near an Islamic shrine, killing five Iraqis in the latest attack on Shiite Muslim pilgrims marking a major religious holiday.
The blast in Tuz Khormato, 55 miles south of Kirkuk, killed three civilians, including a child, and two soldiers helping toguard the shrine yesterday, police reported. Sixteen people were wounded, hospital officials said.
Fighters from the Sunni Muslim-led insurgency staged a string of attacks on Shiite pilgrims in the days leading up to the festival, which marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and one of Shiites’ most important saints.
The day’s biggest gathering was in the holy city of Karbala, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visited two shrines, marched in honour of Hussein and beat their chests with their fists in a sign of mourning.
Seeking to head off attacks, police in Karbala closed streets to vehicles, set up checkpoints and frisked people for weapons. No major incidents were reported.
Late on Wednesday, gunmen ambushed a truck carrying pilgrims near Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, and killed one person, and an attack earlier in the day killed a pilgrim in southern Iraq. On Monday, two attacks on pilgrims left four dead, including two police officers.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, meanwhile, said his country’s troops will leave Iraq by year's end. Ukraine had already said it would begin pulling out its 1,650 soldiers, the fifth-largest contingent in the US-led coalition, but had not set a timetable for completing the withdrawal.
Italy also moved closer to pulling out some troops. Premier Silvio Berlusconi said he plans to reduce the troops contingent at the end of September by about 300 soldiers. The move would trim around 10% of Italy’s contingent of 3,300.
A number of nations have already pulled out of Iraq, pressured by criticism of the mission at home and threats from militant groups in Iraq, which have kidnapped and even beheaded some foreigners.
In Romania, which has 800 soldiers in Iraq, Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu refused yesterday to say whether he would consider withdrawing his country’s troops after kidnappers released a video showing three Romanian journalists who were abducted in Baghdad.
The continuing violence in Iraq has led interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi to extend a state of emergency until the end of April. First announced nearly five months ago, the order affects all of Iraq except Kurdish-run areas in the north.
