Civilian killed in Baghdad bomb attacks against Shiite pilgrims

A civilian was killed and six others were injured in two bomb attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday morning which targeted Shiite pilgrims marching to Iraq's holy city of Karbala for major religious gathering, an Interior Ministry source said.

A Shiite pilgrim was killed and three others wounded when a roadside bomb detonated in the al-Liqaa Square in western Baghdad near a crowd of Shiite pilgrims travelling on foot to Karbala, some 110 km southwest of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, three pilgrims were wounded in another bomb explosion near a Shiite mosque in Bgahdad's southern neighborhood of al-Amel, the source said.

The attacks came as tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are marching from different Iraqi provinces to the holy city of Karbala to mark the Arbaeen ritual slated for Feb. 5.

Major Shiite commemorations have frequently been targeted in the past by various armed groups in Iraq, mainly, to incite sectarian violence in the war-torn country.

Despite relative drop of violence, attacks are still common in Iraq as part of recent deterioration in security which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country just a few weeks before the general elections in March.

Source: Xinhua