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Sectarian bomber kills 38 at shrine
Source: Agencies |
January 5, 2009, Monday
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A FEMALE suicide bomber infiltrated a crowd of Shiite pilgrims, killing at least 38 people and wounding at least 79 at a shrine in Baghdad yesterday.
The blast struck a checkpoint outside the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in Kadhimiya, a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad, as Shiites prepared for the Ashura holiday this week to mark the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
Many of the casualties were pilgrims from Iran, security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said, underscoring the deep religious ties between the two majority-Shiite countries.
"A woman wearing an explosive vest managed to reach one of the security checkpoints near the revered Kadhim shrine and exploded herself among a crowd of pilgrims," his statement said.
United States forces in Iraq came under an Iraqi mandate last Thursday in step with a bilateral pact that requires the withdrawal of the 140,000 US troops by the end of 2011.
As the US reduces its activities in Iraq, local forces are taking greater responsibility for security.
Yesterday's bomb attack was a reminder of the challenges they face, almost six years after the US-led invasion in 2003.
Violence has dropped dramatically from the peak of sectarian bloodshed in 2006 to 2007, but militants regularly stage bombings.
Moussawi said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had ordered a committee to investigate the attack and punish those behind it.
"We are taking a series of measures to prevent a repeat of this security violation," he said.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shiites will visit the holy city of Kerbala, 80 kilometers southwest of Baghdad throughout the Ashura week, one of the most important events in the Shiite calendar.
Sunni militants have frequently targeted Shiite holy pilgrimages, which have become massive events since the fall of Saddam Hussein, who repressed them.
In 2004, at the first Ashura pilgrimage after Saddam's fall, Sunni militants killed more than 160 Shiite pilgrims in attacks on the Kadhimiya and Kerbala shrines.
Those strikes - at that point the bloodiest day since Saddam had been toppled from power - were an early portent of the sectarian fighting that would consume Iraq over the next few years.
But despite the violence, pilgrimages continue to attract hundreds of thousands of worshippers, many from Iran.
Sunni militants use women and girls as suicide bombers to get them past tightened security. At least two dozen female bombers struck last year, killing scores of people.
The blast struck a checkpoint outside the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in Kadhimiya, a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad, as Shiites prepared for the Ashura holiday this week to mark the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
Many of the casualties were pilgrims from Iran, security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said, underscoring the deep religious ties between the two majority-Shiite countries.
"A woman wearing an explosive vest managed to reach one of the security checkpoints near the revered Kadhim shrine and exploded herself among a crowd of pilgrims," his statement said.
United States forces in Iraq came under an Iraqi mandate last Thursday in step with a bilateral pact that requires the withdrawal of the 140,000 US troops by the end of 2011.
As the US reduces its activities in Iraq, local forces are taking greater responsibility for security.
Yesterday's bomb attack was a reminder of the challenges they face, almost six years after the US-led invasion in 2003.
Violence has dropped dramatically from the peak of sectarian bloodshed in 2006 to 2007, but militants regularly stage bombings.
Moussawi said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had ordered a committee to investigate the attack and punish those behind it.
"We are taking a series of measures to prevent a repeat of this security violation," he said.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shiites will visit the holy city of Kerbala, 80 kilometers southwest of Baghdad throughout the Ashura week, one of the most important events in the Shiite calendar.
Sunni militants have frequently targeted Shiite holy pilgrimages, which have become massive events since the fall of Saddam Hussein, who repressed them.
In 2004, at the first Ashura pilgrimage after Saddam's fall, Sunni militants killed more than 160 Shiite pilgrims in attacks on the Kadhimiya and Kerbala shrines.
Those strikes - at that point the bloodiest day since Saddam had been toppled from power - were an early portent of the sectarian fighting that would consume Iraq over the next few years.
But despite the violence, pilgrimages continue to attract hundreds of thousands of worshippers, many from Iran.
Sunni militants use women and girls as suicide bombers to get them past tightened security. At least two dozen female bombers struck last year, killing scores of people.
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