Iraq: 32 Pilgrims Perished in Suicide Attacks

According to police 32 Shiite pilgrims lost their lives in Iraq after a suicide bomber who was disguised as a cop blew himself up at a checkpoint in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. This attack has come at the end of the occasion of Arbain, which is one of the most important events in the Shiite calendars, amid rising fears of increasing shia-sunni violence in the presence of a Shia-led government in Baghdad. A police official present at the scene of bombing said that a terrorist who was wearing the uniform of a policeman and carrying a fake police ID card was able to arrive at a check post and then among the policemen and pilgrims blew himself up.

Police have said that the pilgrims were going to a Shia mosque situated in the west of Basra. With the fear of further attacks, the main hospital in the west of Basra was sealed off by security officials. Emotional tragic scenes were witnessed at the hospital as relatives wept and police, troops and civilians rushed to the hospital bringing injured pilgrims. Some of the wounded were taken in cat trunks.

Deputy Head of the Basra provincial council, Ahmed al-Sulaiti said that 32 people have been killed and more than 100 injured. Since the US invasion of Iraq which led to the tolling of the Saddam regime and establishment of a Shia government, Arbain has regularly been a target of the suicide attacks. In the last few weeks, attacks on pilgrims have claimed many lives, including a disastrous attack killing some 44 people. Many of these incidents have been suicide attacks, which are regarded as a signature of Al-Qaeda.

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Tags: al-qaeda, Iraq, Killings, Pilgrims, Suicicde Attack