A car bomb
targeted Shiite pilgrims in an area near Baghdad on Saturday, killing at
least 14 people and wounding at least 25, security and medical
officials said.
The bomb was left on a road in the Nahrawan area used by Shiite
pilgrims who are walking to the shrine of Imam Musa Kadhim in northern
Baghdad for annual commemorations.
Kadhim, the seventh of 12 imams revered in Shiite Islam, died in 799
AD. The commemoration has in recent years turned into a huge event that
brings the Iraqi capital to a standstill for days.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but
the Islamic State jihadist group frequently targets members of Iraq’s
Shiite majority, whom it considers heretics.
Last year’s pilgrimage was also marred by attacks against worshippers that killed at least 13 people.
And four more were burned or shot to death when mobs torched houses
and a Sunni religious endowment building after rumours of a suicide
bomber sparked panic among a crowd of pilgrims.
IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi
forces backed by US-led military assistance have since regained
signficant ground.
The jihadists still control a large part of western Iraq, and are
able to carry out frequent attacks against both civilians and security
forces in government-held areas.
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