Suicide bomber targets Shi'ite pilgrims

Iraq blast, attack leave at least 43 dead on holy day

Shi'ite pilgrims walked from Dora toward Karbala yesterday. The violence in Dora left at least three civilians dead. (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber blew himself up among Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims at a crowded rest stop yesterday, part of an eruption of sectarian violence that killed at least 43 people, injured 148, and tarnished one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest holidays.

The bloodshed will put pressure on a truce first declared by a powerful Shi'ite militia in August. On Friday, anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr renewed the cease-fire for six months in a move US and Iraqi officials hope will reinforce recent security gains. But patience with the cease-fire is wearing thin among Sadr's followers, who complain that their opponents are using it to target them.

The bombing was one of at least three attacks yesterday on the throngs of Shi'ites who were walking to the southern shrine city of Karbala to commemorate the religious holiday of Arbaeen. The weeklong pilgrimage, which culminates Thursday, marks the end of 40 days of mourning after the anniversary of the seventh-century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad and the spiritual linchpin of the Shi'ite faith.

Such pilgrimages were banned under Saddam Hussein's Sunni Arab regime. Since the late dictator was toppled in 2003, they have become an expression of the dominance of Iraq's Shi'ite majority - and a frequent target for Sunni insurgents.

More than 200 people were killed last year in repeated attacks as the flag-carrying throngs made their way to Karbala. Encouraged by the recent drop in violence, millions are expected to converge in the holy city this year, many of them walking more than 100 miles to get there.

Residents along the route set up tents offering the pilgrims food, water, and a place to rest. It was at one of these so-called comfort stations, erected along a highway between the towns of Iskandariyah and Musayyib south of Baghdad, that the suicide attacker struck yesterday.

Iraqi security officials and witnesses said a man with explosives hidden under a black leather jacket mingled among the pilgrims and blew himself up. At least 40 people were killed and 105 wounded, said Dr. Ahmed Ajrish, an official at the Babil Province health directorate.

Fadil Talib, a civil servant, was in the crowd when the explosion happened.

"All I remember is a loud roar of, `God is great,' followed by a loud blast," Talib said from a hospital bed in nearby Hillah. "The pressure was so intense that all the sounds were muted. I saw flesh fluttering like feathers in the air. . . . I fainted and didn't come to until here in the hospital."

Hours after the blast, ambulances continued to arrive at three regional hospitals with the dead and wounded. Staff battled to cope with the flood of casualties.

Talib lay on his side, squeezing a nurse's hand as a doctor stitched a gash in the back of his head. The hospital was running out of anesthetic and other supplies, the doctor said.

Earlier yesterday, police said a roadside bomb exploded near pilgrims walking along a highway through the southern Baghdad district of Dora, where fighting erupted between the mostly Sunni Arab residents and Shi'ite militiamen accompanying the procession.

To protect pilgrims from further violence, the US military said Iraqi security forces were increasing the number of checkpoints and joint patrols with the Americans along the route to Karbala. Vehicle traffic is also being restricted in some areas and observation posts have been set up, the statement said.

In another development, an Iraqi militant group posted a video on the Internet today showing the killings of 12 Nepalese men who worked for a Nepalese company with a US contract, according to Reuters news service. A militant beheaded one of the men with a knife. The rest were shot in the back while laying face down in a sandy lot, the video, posted by an Islamist group called the Army of Ansar al-Sunna, showed.