Global General

Roadside bomb kills 2 Shiite pilgrims in Iraq

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-03 17:15

BAGHDAD: Two Shiite pilgrims were killed and 17 wounded in a bomb attack in eastern the holy city of Karbala, a well-informed police source said Wednesday.

The massive roadside bomb explosion took place late on Tuesday night, hitting a crowd of Shiite pilgrims travelling on foot on a main road in the Qantara area on their way to the holy shrine of Karbala, some 110 km southwest of Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Earlier on Wednesday, the police said that a Shiite pilgrim was killed and six wounded in the morning in two roadside bomb attacks against the pilgrims in western and southern the capital.

The attacks came as tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims were marching from different Iraqi provinces to the holy city of Karbala to commemorate the Arbaeen ritual (40 days after the day of Ashura) slated for February 5.

Major Shiite commemorations have frequently been targeted in the past by various armed groups in Iraq, mainly, to incite sectarian violence in the war-torn country.

Despite relative drop of violence, attacks are still common in Iraq as part of recent deterioration in security which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country just a few weeks before the general elections in March.