More attacks on Shi’ite pilgrims a day after suicide attacks

BAGHDAD – Attacks on Shi’ite pilgrims showed no sign of easing yesterday with at least 11 people killed by bombs and gunfire as they streamed toward a Muslim shrine ahead of a weekend holiday.

The targeted violence came a day after two suicide bombers exploded themselves among pilgrims lining up at a checkpoint, killing at least 120 people and wounding about 190, police and hospital officials said. Yesterday, mourners carried coffins through Hillah, about 95 kilometres south of Baghdad, where a main street became a swamp of blood and debris after the twin attack.Bodies in plastic bags were lined up outside the city’s hospital, where the wounded lay on gurneys in crowded hallways.The Hillah bombings and other attacks on Shi’ites have been blamed on Sunni insurgents, trying to destabilise Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government and push the country toward civil war.The victims had been headed to Karbala, 80 kilometres south of Baghdad, for weekend rites marking the end of a 40-day mourning period for the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.Hussein died near Karbala in a 7th-century battle.Abbas Ghatie Ali, a 32-year-old pilgrim walking from Baghdad to Karbala yesterday, tied a list of emergency contacts around his neck in case he was hurt along the way.”I’m wearing this card to identify me if I’m killed during the journey to Karbala,” Ali said.He said he would continue to walk despite attacks on fellow pilgrims, because Shiites are “the majority and will defend our ideology and doctrine.”Another traveller, Khadija Tawfek Mouhsin, said his brother was killed last year en route to Karbala, but that he was determined to make the journey.”The terrorists give us the chance to go to paradise,” the 39-year-old Shiite pilgrim said.Community leaders in Karbala met to discuss how to better provide security for the pilgrims, according to a statement from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office.Iraq’s Defence Ministry said Tuesday that it would deploy soldiers along the pilgrimage route.Nampa-APYesterday, mourners carried coffins through Hillah, about 95 kilometres south of Baghdad, where a main street became a swamp of blood and debris after the twin attack.Bodies in plastic bags were lined up outside the city’s hospital, where the wounded lay on gurneys in crowded hallways.The Hillah bombings and other attacks on Shi’ites have been blamed on Sunni insurgents, trying to destabilise Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government and push the country toward civil war.The victims had been headed to Karbala, 80 kilometres south of Baghdad, for weekend rites marking the end of a 40-day mourning period for the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.Hussein died near Karbala in a 7th-century battle.Abbas Ghatie Ali, a 32-year-old pilgrim walking from Baghdad to Karbala yesterday, tied a list of emergency contacts around his neck in case he was hurt along the way.”I’m wearing this card to identify me if I’m killed during the journey to Karbala,” Ali said.He said he would continue to walk despite attacks on fellow pilgrims, because Shiites are “the majority and will defend our ideology and doctrine.”Another traveller, Khadija Tawfek Mouhsin, said his brother was killed last year en route to Karbala, but that he was determined to make the journey.”The terrorists give us the chance to go to paradise,” the 39-year-old Shiite pilgrim said.Community leaders in Karbala met to discuss how to better provide security for the pilgrims, according to a statement from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office.Iraq’s Defence Ministry said Tuesday that it would deploy soldiers along the pilgrimage route.Nampa-AP