Three die, 30 hurt in Iraq bombings

BAGHDAD - Three people were killed and at least 30 others, including a police chief, were wounded Sunday in two bomb attacks targeting Shia pilgrims in eastern Iraq’s Diyala province, Xinhua reports.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shia procession in the al-Gatoon area of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, killing three Shia pilgrims and wounding at least seven others, an official requesting anonymity said.

Twenty-five people, including the chief of Diyala’s Federal Police Force, were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a security convoy at the scene of the first bomb attack, the official added. Of the wounded, 17 were civilians.

Iraqi Shias are marking the 10-day annual Ashura mourning rite, which marks the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in 680 A.D.

Shia mourners usually gather in processions in the towns and cities before they move on foot or buses to the holy shrines in Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad.