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Attacks On Pilgrims In Iraq Continue; At Least 3 Killed

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The Associated Press

Published: August 17, 2008

BAGHDAD - Bombers struck Shiite pilgrims Saturday for a third consecutive day, killing at least three people in the latest in a series of attacks apparently aimed at stoking sectarian tension.

The attacks have targeted pilgrims headed for the Shiite city of Karbala, where hundreds of thousands of people are gathered for festivities that culminate this morning.

No group has claimed responsibility, but assaults on Shiite civilians have been carried out for years by Sunni extremists such as al-Qaida in Iraq.

The latest attack occurred about 9 a.m. Saturday when a car bomb exploded in the north Baghdad neighborhood of Shaab as pilgrims were boarding minibuses bound for Karbala, 50 miles to the south.
Iraqi police and hospital employees said six people were killed and 11 injured. The U.S. military put the toll at three dead and eight injured.

The attacks have heightened concern that extremists are seeking to reignite the firestorm of sectarian massacres that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war two years ago before thousands of U.S. reinforcements were rushed to the country.

The violence, however, did little to deter Shiite pilgrims who descended on Karbala for the festival, known as Shabaniyah, which marks the birth of Imam Mohammed al-Mahdi - known as the "Hidden Iman" - a Shiite saint who disappeared in the ninth century.

In Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers Saturday arrested the head of a U.S.-funded Sunni group who was accused of "supporting terrorism."

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