Suicide Bomber Target Arba’een Pilgrims

Above: An Iraqi soldier directs Shi’ite pilgrims

A suicide bomber kills at least 40 people at a Shi’ite rest stop outside the Hateen Apartments in Iskandiriyah City, Iraq. 25 out of the 60 more that were hurt are critically injured in the attack. The bombing vistims include women and children.

According to a United States military official, 42,000 pilgrims are gathered in the vicinity – all are walking towards Karbala City to attend the Arba’een ceremony of this Sunday. Arba’een is a Shi’a religious holiday that occurs forty days after the Day of Ashurah – which is commemorated by the Shi’a as a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali at the Battle of Karbala. Husayn ibn Ali is the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Police lieutenant Karim al-Tamimi said that “At around 3pm, when pilgrims were eating their lunch inside the tent, a bomber blew himself up amid the crowd.”

“When we reached the area, people invited us into a tent to take some rest and have some food. When we entered, there was a huge ball of fire and we saw people lying on the ground,” said one of the survivors.

The attacked tent was jam packed with pilgrims since it is only one of the few available to them in the predominantly Sunni region. According to reports, it is located in what the pilgrims called the “triangle of death” – a region in the path where most riots take place. It has also been reported that these partisan clashes in the area has claimed hundreds of lives already – spanning in just the last few years.

Last year, more than 149 pilgrims were killed by Sunni Arab insurgents on their way to Karbala City. This is the reason why more Iraqi troops were deployed in this year’s ceremonies – 40,000 more according to Karbala Police Chief Major-General Raad Shakir. Iraqi tanks (shown in picture below) were also being used for the first time.

Below: Iraqi Tank at Pilgrimage

All that effort proved to be no match for the traitorous suicide bomber.

Witnesses said they heard a woman shout “God is great” just before the explosion.

“I saw a woman rush into the tent,” said one witness. “Then there was an explosion and I went unconscious.”

According to the United States military, the attack was not isolated in the area. In the morning, extremists threw grenades in Dora City (also in the pilgrim pathway) that killed at least 3 people and wounded 36 others.

Just after I wrote this entry, another attack took place — a roadside bomb killed three more pilgrims and injured 15 more in the outskirts of Baghdad.

Update:

A suicide bomber in a wheelchair attacked an Iraqi police station in Samarra on Monday. He killed a top police official and wounded six other police officers. Samarra is located in the Salaheddin province.

The man came to meet with Brigadier General Abdul Jabbar Rabei Muttar, deputy commander of security. As soon as Muttar got near the bomber, the terrorist detonated the bomb which he concealed underneath his wheelchair. Investigation has proved that they had already met the previous week.

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