Baghdad, July 08: A suicide bomber wearing an explosives-filled belt murdered 28 Shiite pilgrims today while five more were killed in bomb attacks against worshippers in Baghdad, a security official told AFP.
The suicide attack occurred in Adhamiyah, a Sunni district across the Tigris river from Kadhimiyah, an area named after Musa Kadhim, the seventh of 12 revered imams in Shiite Islam, whom the pilgrims are honouring.
An interior ministry official said 28 were killed and 63 wounded. Many of the victims were passing through Adhamiyah en route to the imam’s mausoleum.
Five more pilgrims were killed and 36 injured by bombs in east Baghdad, police said.
Tens of thousands of Shiite worshippers streamed into the Iraqi capital earlier in the day amid heavy security for the pilgrimage, a day after six people were killed in violence.
–PTI