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Iraq |
Iraq Shi'ite mosque bombing kills eight |
2008-01-18 |
![]() Baquba is the capital of Diyala province, where the U.S. military and Iraqi forces are concentrating their fight against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other insurgents who were pushed out of Baghdad and western Anbar province. Iraqi security forces have launched a major operation to protect pilgrims attending Ashura, one of the world's largest religious gatherings, mainly in the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala south of Baghdad. Vehicle curfews have been imposed in southern provinces as well as in Baghdad and Diyala to protect Shi'ites observing Ashura, which commemorates the death of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson in battle in Kerbala 1,300 years ago. Suspected al Qaeda suicide bombers and mortar attacks killed 171 people during Ashura in Kerbala and Baghdad in 2004. The U.S. military this month launched a new offensive aimed at driving al Qaeda out of religiously mixed Diyala, part of a wider operation in provinces north of Baghdad and the capital's southern outskirts where Sunni Arab militants have regrouped. |
Posted by:Fred |