THE death toll from attacks on Shia pilgrims in the past few days has reached 60, with two more blasts last night that killed seven people.
Militants struck across the Iraqi capital yesterday, despite security forces being on high alert as Shia pilgrims from all over Iraq converged on the Musa Kadhim shrine, where a revered imam is buried, in the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Kazimiyah.
Attacks since Tuesday have now wounded more than 300 people. The deadliest suicide bombing killed 32 pilgrims. That attack took place near the bridge where 900 people died in 2005 in a stampede sparked by a rumour that a suicide bomber was among the million people who had gathered at the Kazimiyah shrine, to mark the date of the imam’s death.
Though violence has dropped across Iraq, religious processions, holy sites and security forces are still regularly targeted by insurgents trying to reignite sectarian bloodshed that had the nation teetering on the brink of civil war from 2005 to 2007.
The Shiite majority in Iraq have been a main target of Sunni Arab armed groups since the US-led invasion of 2003 toppled now executed dictator Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime.
Iraq has been without a new government since the March 7 election, which produced no clear winner.
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