BAGHDAD – One pilgrim was killed by rocket fire on Friday in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala where millions of pilgrims have gathered from around the world for fortieth day of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain also known as Arbaeen.
Police officials said the a Karbala resident was killed after rocket fired from north of the city, an area held by radical Islamic State fighters.
Officials have said they expect militants to target Arbaeen.
This year’s ceremonies come six months after ISIS swept through much of northern Iraq and cemented its hold over Anbar province to the west of Baghdad.
Kerbala, 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Baghdad, has remained firmly under government control but there has been heavy fighting this year just 20 miles to the north.
In the town of Muqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad, five people were killed at a Shia religious site by a suicide bomber and a wave of mortar bombs, security and medical sources said.
They said the suicide bomber embraced the guard at the ‘Husseiniya’, where pilgrims gather to remember Imam Hussein, before detonating his bomb. Mortars were then fired at the site.
Islamic State fighters follow a radical ideology which considers Shia Muslims as heretics and have targeted them across the swathes of Iraq and Syria where their group has declared a caliphate.
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