Suicide bombers turned the eve of a Shia holy day into a bloodbath on Friday when they infiltrated worshippers in Baghdad and detonated explosives, killing and maiming dozens of people.
Loudspeakers on minarets appealed for blood donations as scenes of carnage unfolded below, with men, women and children caught up in Iraq’s deadliest day since last month’s election.
Explosions at three mosques, a religious procession and an army checkpoint targeted Shias on the eve of their holiest day in an apparent attempt by insurgents to provoke a sectarian backlash.
In the first attack, a man entered the prayer hall of al-Khadimain mosque in the Dora district of Baghdad and detonated explosives packed in a jacket as worshippers knelt in prayer. The blast killed 15 people and wounded 33, according to officials at Yarmouk hospital in the city.
Later, two men approached the al-Bayaa mosque in western Baghdad. Police spotted them acting suspiciously and shot one dead. The other blew himself up, killing two people.
A third bomb killed two and injured eight people at a religious procession, and an attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint in a Shia neighbourhood caused several casualties.
On Friday night, a car bomb outside a Shia mosque south of Baghdad killed seven people and wounded 10. More atrocities are feared because Saturday is the climax of Ashura, a commemoration of the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who was killed in a battle near the city of Kerbala in the seventh century.
Shias comprise 60% of the population and will dominate the national assembly which insurgents reject as a legacy of the United States-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime. After decades of oppression the election has brought Shias to the brink of power and some of this year’s Ashura commemorations have doubled in numbers as displays of political strength.
The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), a leading Shia party, said there would be no sectarian reprisals. A spokesperson for Sciri said: ”With all the anger that Shias could feel, the fact is they are controlled by political leadership … so I don’t think there will be any acts that are out of control.” Last year, car bombs on Ashura claimed 181 lives in Baghdad and Kerbala, 108km south-west of the capital.
Earlier this week the government closed its borders to pilgrims from other parts of the Muslim world who were heading to Iraq for Ashura. Authorities suspected they would be targets for attack.
The insurgents showed on Friday that they could strike despite the best efforts of the security forces.Iraq’s police and army had been buoyed by their relative success in containing attacks during the January 30 election but have struggled in the face of a fresh onslaught.
Six kidnapped Iraqi soldiers were found shot dead near Samarra, about 100km north of Baghdad, on Friday. In a separate incident gunmen shot dead two policemen guarding a power station in the city. Three US soldiers died in separate attacks in or near the northern city of Mosul and a fourth died in a bomb blast near Baghdad. – Guardian Unlimited Â