Baghdad: Two car bombs kill at least 16, targeting Shiites
Iraqi Shiite Muslim pilgrims walk on January 6, 2012 through the Dura neighborhood of Baghdad on a main highway linking the Iraqi capital to the central shrine city of Karbala where they will mark the Arbaeen religious festival which is the 40th day after Ashura commemorating the killing of Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, Imam Hussein in the seventh century. Two bombs exploded in the morning on separate bridges in the Dura neighborhood of south Baghdad in an Attack against Shiite pilgrims killing two people.
Two car bombs exploded on Monday in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, killing at least 16 people, the Associated Press reported.
Both bombs, one set off at night, seemed to have targeted Shiites. The bombs appear to be a part of the latest wave of violence in Iraq targeting Shiites and killing more than 90 people in a week.
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A bomb went off earlier in the day, killing two Shiite pilgrims in a Baghdad suburb. Later in the evening, two car bombs were set off. One bomb was in the largely Sunni western neighborhood of al-Muwasalat, targeting Shiite pilgrims on their way to Karbala and killing at least nine people, the AP reported.
The second bomb struck near a police vehicle in the Shiite neighborhood of al-Shaab, killing three policeman and four other people.
According to police and hospital officials, at least 52 people had been injured by the bombs, the BBC reported.
Hundreds of thousands of Shiites are currently making their way to Karbala to commemorate the Arbaeen pilgrimage this weekend, CNN reported. Arbaeen marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for the death of Imam Hussain, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
The deadliest attack against Shiites came on Thursday, when a suicide bomber struck an army checkpoint where pilgrims were gathered. Officials said the death toll from the attack alone left at least 44 dead and 70 wounded, CNN reported.
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