- Title: IRAQ: Car bomb in Shi'ite city of Kerbala kills 3 people and wounds 17 others
- Date: 14th June 2012
- Summary: WOUNDED CHILD LYING ON BED
- Embargoed: 29th June 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iraq
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Crime,Domestic Politics,People
- Reuters ID: LVA272GD9T387H7U4N36332E8H2O
- Story Text: A car bomb exploded in the Shi'ite city of Kerbala on Wednesday (June 13), killing three people and wounding 17 other, police and hospital sources said.
They said that the car bomb was parked near a bus station in Twereej district, east of the Kerbala city.
"I am a taxi driver and I was waiting for passengers in the morning when all of a sudden a blast took place. I flew up into the air (with the impact of the blast) and then down to earth. I started to crawl and I saw people, wounded people scattered on the ground, some of them had their legs ripped off," said Kadhim Hashim from his hospital bed.
The attack was the one of successive bombings and shootings which targeted mainly Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims and security forces across Iraq, killing more than 60 people in coordinated attacks during a major religious festival.
Iraqi Sunni insurgents tied to al Qaeda have repeatedly attacked Shi'ite targets in an attempt to reignite the broad sectarian violence that drove the country close to civil war and killed tens of thousands of people in 2006-2007.
Political tensions are also running high since American troops left Iraq in December with the Sunni, Shi'ite and ethnic Kurdish blocks that make up the country's fragile government feuding over their power-sharing accord.
In Wednesday's attacks, police said at least 24 people were killed when at least five bombs hit pilgrims across Baghdad as they gathered to mark the anniversary of the death of Shi'ite imam Moussa al-Kadhim, a great-grandson of Prophet Mohammad.
In one Baghdad attack, assailants targeted a Shi'ite mosque with a car bomb in a southern neighbourhood, killing six people and wounding 28 more, police and hospital officials said.
Another of the Baghdad blasts killed at least 16 people as pilgrims passed through a police checkpoint in the central capital district of Karrada.
Extra security and checkpoints have been in place this week as thousands of pilgrims flocked into Baghdad, many of them on foot, to meet at a shrine in the capital's northern Kadhimiya district for the Shi'ite religious festival.
In a separate attack on Wednesday in the mainly Shi'ite southern city of Hilla, police said two car bombs, including one detonated by a suicide bomber, exploded outside restaurants used by security forces, killing 22 people and wounding 38.
One more car killed four people in the Shi'ite city of Balad, while another car bomb in Haswa, 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad, killed one person, and wounded four.
Five soldiers were also killed by gunmen in an attack on an army checkpoint in the south of the capital, police said.
Wednesday's attacks came at a sensitive time after a recent spate of bombings on Shi'ite religious events or sites.
On Sunday, at least six people were killed and 38 wounded when two mortar bombs struck a square packed with Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims in Baghdad's Kadhimiya district.
Earlier this month, 26 people were killed and more than 190 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive-rigged car outside a Shi'ite religious office in the capital.
Al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack on the religious office. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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