Bombings surrounding Shia festival in Iraq kill 36
Bombings of a Shia mosque and a bus full of pilgrims killed at least 36 people as Iraq’s Shia community celebrates one of its biggest feasts.
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Pilgrims have been swarming in and out of Karbala, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, to mark the birth of a historic religious figure, placing Iraqi and American security forces on high alert.
The first bomb went off as worshipers were leaving a mosque after Friday prayers near the northern city of Mosul, killing 30. According to the BBC, police said at least 61 people had also been wounded in the blast, and the number of casualties was likely to rise.
City authorities are urging citizens to donate blood and appealed for construction vehicles to lift debris trapping victims of the attack, Rueters says.
“I was in the house when this explosion happened,” said 19-year-old Khalil Qasim through his tears.
“I hurried to the mosque to search for my father in the ruins… I found him seriously wounded, and took him to hospital, but he died.”
Meanwhile, a bus full of pilgrims returning to Baghdad was struck by a roadside bomb as it entered the Shia area of Sadr City, The blasts killed six and injured many other returning pilgrims, police said.
An attack Thursday evening killed at least one person making their way to the festival and injured three.
Violence surrounding this festival is not uncommon. According to the BBC, the hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims who gather in Karbala to mark the birth of Mohammed al-Mehdi – the 12th and last Shia Imam, known as the Hidden Imam – have often been targeted by attacks in the past.