BAGHDAD: At least sixty three people, including women and children, were killed and nearly 80 others injured in three attacks by militants on Shia Muslim pilgrims walking towards a Baghdad neighbourhood which houses the revered shrines of Imam Musa Kazim and Imam Muhammad Jawad.
The attackers defied a shutdown of major roadways for Muslim faithful who were heading to the Kazimiyah in western Baghdad to commemorate the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Musa Kazim (AD 745-799) the seventh Shia Imam.
The deadliest attack was in eastern Baghdad, near Tayaran Square, where a mini-bus approached a crowd of pilgrims and exploded, killing 14 people, including four children, according to police and medical sources.
We need a new government that is able to protect us from those terrorists that are the enemies of God, said a man wounded in the Ur bombing, Jafar al-Musawi.
In the western neighbourhood of Mansour, a parked car exploded, killing 11 people. In the eastern district of Shaab, suicide bomber blew himself near a group of pilgrims, killing 12, the sources added.
Mortars were also fired at Zahra neighbourhood adjacent to Kazimiyah, where tens of thousands of pilgrims were present. Three pilgrims were killed in the attack.
In northern Sulaimani province, security officials arrested would be bomber and confiscated an explosives-filled backpack before it went off at a major Shia mosque, as worshipers were preparing for the mourning ceremony.
The security department said that a man was arrested as he tried to exit, after leaving behind a backpack in the mosque, or husseiniyeh, on Sulaimanis Salim street.
The backpack was found to contain 10 kilograms of explosives, the security department said.
For days pilgrims from across the country have been walking to Kazimiyah where the rituals climax on Saturday and Sunday.
The violence comes just three days after the preliminary results of Iraqs April election confirmed Prime Minister Nuri al-Malikis status as the favourite to form the next government.
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