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Bombers kill at least 6 people in Iraq Four suicide bombers blew themselves up in Iraq on Saturday, killing at least six people, as Shiite Muslim worshippers around the country celebrated the holiest day of the year, one day after at least 36 people were killed in a string of attacks. Saturday's bombings, during the religious festival of Ashoura, came despite stepped-up security around the country. Authorities had hoped to prevent a repeat of last year's attacks during Ashoura in which insurgents killed at least 181 people in twin blasts in Karbala and Baghdad.
On Saturday, a suicide bomber walked into a tent outside a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad and blew himself up, killing at least three people and injuring 10, police captain Hussain al-Ani said. About 50 people were inside the tent attending a funeral.
It was unclear why the attacker blew himself up inside a tent full of Sunnis, set up outside the Fatah Pasha mosque, but similar structures were set up outside Shiite mosques for the Ashoura celebration. Most attacks by insurgents — who are thought to be predominantly Sunni extremists — are aimed at Shiites.
Another suicide bomber who tried to kill a group Iraqi National Guard troops near a mosque in northwest Baghdad on Saturday detonated prematurely and killed only himself.
A third bomber blew up a car outside an Iraqi National Guard base in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing one Iraqi guardsman and wounding another, police Col. Muthafar Shahab said. The suicide bomber also died in the blast, he said.
A fourth suicide bomber blew up his car at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Latifiya, 20 miles south of the capital, killing two Iraqi soldiers, an army officer said on condition of anonymity.
Gunmen also holed up in a building and opened fire on a funeral procession in Baghdad in which mourners were carrying coffins of some of the dead killed Friday in a bombing at the capital's al-Khadimain mosque, witnesses said.
Iraqi National Guard troops guarding the procession foiled that attack, returning fire and capturing one of the assailants, said Sgt. Ali Hussein. No casualties were reported.
Authorities, bracing for violence Saturday, stepped up security around the country. In Karbala, vehicle traffic — even motorcycles, bikes and pushcarts — was prohibited in an attempt to avert bomb attacks.
Insurgents staged five attacks on Friday leaving at least 36 people dead, and Shiites blamed radical Sunni Muslim insurgents, who have staged car bombs, shootings and kidnappings to try to destabilize Iraq's new government.
"Those infidel Wahhabis, those Osama bin Laden followers, they did this because they hate Shiites," said Sari Abdullah, a worshipper at Baghdad's al-Khadimain mosque who was injured by shrapnel from the explosion Friday. "They are afraid of us. They are not Muslims. They are infidels."
A militant Web site posted claims of responsibility from the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq for the Baqouba bombing and an attack on a police checkpoint in Baghdad. There was no way to verify the claims.
Friday's attacks began with two suicide bombings outside mosques in predominantly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad.
The first explosion at the al-Khadimain mosque killed 15, while the second, at al-Bayaa, took 10 more lives, an official at Baghdad's al-Yarmouk Hospital said on condition of anonymity. The al-Khadimain bombing occurred just outside the entrance to the mosque as people were still inside praying. The al-Bayaa attack also took place outside the mosque during prayers.
One of Saturday's explosions was about a half mile from the al-Bayaa blast.
Another explosion on Friday hit a Shiite religious procession, killing two and injuring five, according to Iraqi police Lt. Waed Hussein. A fourth attack, involving a suicide bomber, struck an Iraqi police and National Guard checkpoint in a Sunni neighborhood, killing at least one policeman.
Later Friday, a car bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque in Iskandariyah — 30 miles south of the capital — where hundreds had gathered, killing eight people and wounding 10, doctors said. Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, the national security adviser for the interim government, accused Jordanian-born terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and former Baath party members of trying to provoke a sectarian civil war. "It's a paradoxical idea when they claim that they are fighting the infidels and at the same time, they kill Muslims during Friday prayers," he said. He said Shiites, who make up 60 percent of the population, would not call for retaliation against the minority Sunnis who were favored by Saddam Hussein's regime. "I am happy and proud of the people's reactions," al-Rubaie said. "Those who lost their sons and relatives didn't call for retaliation against Sunnis, which reflects their awareness and understanding of what is going on." Walid al-Hilly, a leading figure of the Shiite-led Dawa Party, said the attacks would not stop the Shiites from trying to cooperate with Sunnis and other minorities in a new government. "They kill unarmed men, women and children who want to glorify the ceremonies of Ashoura. These terrorist actions will not intimidate us nor make us change the way that we choose freedom from tyranny and oppression," he told Al-Jazeera television. "We chose the path of brotherhood, cooperation and unity between Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Shabak, Turkomen and Christians and all other sects." The attacks made Friday the deadliest day since last month's elections for a new national assembly. The Shiite ticket, the United Iraqi Alliance, won 48 percent of the vote in Iraq's first democratic balloting, while Sunnis mostly did not vote. In a reminder of the dangers facing American troops here, a U.S. soldier was killed Friday on patrol in northern Iraq and a second was killed in the south, the military said. Three other American soldiers were killed in separate attacks in the country's north on Wednesday and Thursday. |
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