Iraq attacks
kill 72A wave of apparently coordinated bombings and shootings rocked
Iraq during a major Shiite religious commemoration on Wednesday, killing
at least 72 people and wounding more than 250, many of them pilgrims.
The attacks, which came as pilgrims flocked to a shrine to mark the
anniversary of the death of Imam Musa Kadhim, a revered imam in Shiite
Islam, were the deadliest in Iraq since August 15, 2011 when 74 people
were killed.
The targeting of Shiite pilgrims was a stark reminder of Sunni-Shiite
violence which tore Iraq apart in 2006-2007 and was condemned by
parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, who termed it an attempt “to
provoke sectarian strife.” Baghdad was hit by 10 bomb attacks and two
shootings that killed at least 28 people and wounded dozens more,
according to an interior ministry official and a medic. AFP
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