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| Ashura attacks on Shiite pilgrims kill 24 in Iraq | | |
KARBALA (IRAQ), JAN 30
Two powerful bombings killed 24 Shiite pilgrims today in Iraq, as thousands of bleeding Shiites flayed themselves with swords and chains during the Ashura mourning rite in the shrine city.
Twelve Shiites died when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque as they were marking Ashura in Dur Mandali, close to the town of Bala Druz in the restive Diyala province.
Another 40 were wounded.
In another attack, 12 Kurdish Shiites, known as Faylis, were killed when a bomb stashed in a roadside bin exploded as they were heading to a local husseiniyah (religious hall) in the town of Khanaqin, near the Iranian border.
"A woman and a child were among those killed in the blast," police Colonel Azad Issa said, adding another 39 were wounded.
Shiite Muslims, who have been observing their annual mourning ritual for the past 10 days, have become a regular target of alleged Sunni extremists during Ashura, the holiest date on Shiite Islam's calendar.
In 2004, 170 people were killed in attacks in Baghdad and Karbala and another 44 died in a single incident in Karbala in 2005.
Today, hundreds of thousands of Shiites performed the rite in the central Iraqi shrine city as around 10,000 security personnel stood guard.
The ceremonies marked the climax of the mourning ceremony, which commemorates the killing of Imam Hussein in 680 by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in Karbala.
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