Baghdad (dpa) – At least 40 Shiite pilgrims were killed Saturday in a suicide bombing in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, according to medical and security sources. The pilgrims were en route to a major religious ceremony in the holy city of Karbala. A further 90 people were injured in the attack, mounted despite the deployment of thousands of security personnel to protect the pilgrims. The victims included women and children, added the sources. “The bomber was wearing an explosive belt when he blew himself up targeting a crowd of people who were heading to a mosque,” the Iraqi website Alsumaria News reported, quoting a security source in Basra, 420 kilometres south-east of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The bomber was handing out cookies to the visitors and blew himself up when a policeman approached him, said witnesses. Separately, three policemen were killed and four civilians injured in a bomb blast near Shiite pilgrims in Mosul, located some 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, according to security sources. The crowd was visiting a holy shrine in the city before heading to Karbala, added the sources. Millions of Shiites were Saturday gathering in Karbala to mark the peak of Arbaeen pilgrimage, which commemorates the slaying of Imam Hussein bin Ali, the grandson of the prophet Mohammed. The annual festival has been the target of deadly attacks blamed on al-Qaeda and radical insurgents in recent years. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/Rqk9a Section: Iraq, Latest News
