45 killed in attacks on Shiite pilgrims in Iraq
By DPA, IANSThursday, January 20, 2011
BAGHDAD - Some 45 people were killed Thursday in attacks on Muslim Shiite pilgrims outside the Iraqi city of Karbala, a hospital source said.
Some 182 people were injured said Mohammed al-Barudi, a doctor at the city’s Hussein hospital.
Four bombs exploded at different entry points to Karbala, where thousands of Shiite pilgrims gathered to commemorate the 40th day after Ashoura, a religious day of mourning for Shiites.
In the city of Baquba, one man was killed and 10 people were injured by a bomb targeting a group of Muslim Shiite pilgrims on their way to Karbala on foot.
Ashoura marks the martyrdom of Shiite Imam Hussein bin Ali, the grandson of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, who was killed in a battle 1,400 years ago in Karbala, around 100 km south of Baghdad.
Hussein’s death is seen as the start of the division between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
Three people were killed and at least 30 injured when a car bomb exploded at a police station in Baquba, some 60 km northeast of Baghdad.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in the car up at the gates of the police station.
