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| Iraq |
| Shiites flood Karbala despite attacks |
| 2008-08-17 |
| Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims poured into Iraq's holy city of Karbala on Saturday for a rite that has become an annual show of strength for Shiites, defying bomb attacks across the country. At least six people were killed in the latest such attack, when a car bombing in Baghdad on Saturday targeted Shiite pilgrims heading to of Karbala for the religious festival, police and hospital officials said. The attack was the latest in a wave of bombings since Thursday that have now killed at least 36 people, most of them pilgrims, despite a massive security operation. Saturday's attack, in the northeastern Baghdad district of Ur, also wounded 11 people, the officials said. Late on Friday, a van packed with explosives was detonated at a bus station where pilgrims were assembling in Balad, a Shi'ite town in a mainly Sunni area north of Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding 40, according to police. Many of the pilgrims have walked for days in temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) to mark the birth of Imam al-Mehdi, a Messiah-like figure Shi'ites believe vanished centuries ago and will return to bring peace on earth. More than 40,000 soldiers and police have been mobilized, including 2,000 female security workers, to boost security in and around Karbala ahead of a festival on Sunday commemorating an eighth century imam. Bloodshed routinely marks Shiite pilgrimages. On July 28, three female suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of pilgrims near a Baghdad shrine, killing 25. |
| Posted by:Fred |