Dozens of Iraqis were killed Thursday in a series of attacks against mainly Shiite areas in Baghdad and southern Iraq, according to Iraqi health and security officials, as sectarian tensions rose in the aftermath of the U.S. pullout last month.
The attacks, which killed at least 69 people and wounded dozens more, coincided with the start of preparations for one of the most important occasions on the Shiite religious calendar next week, and amid a worsening political crisis in Iraq.
No one claimed responsibility for the attacks. Many previous attacks targeting Shiites have been claimed by Sunni militants, including those linked to al Qaeda who regard Shiites as apostates.
Sectarian tensions already were heightened between members of the Sunni and Shiite sects, as a Sunni political bloc continued to boycott the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, himself a Shiite.
The bloodiest attack occurred in the afternoon near the southern city of Nasiriya when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a procession of Shiite pilgrims. By nightfall, police officials said at least 45 were dead and 80 wounded.
A police official said the bomber broke through a security checkpoint on the main road in the town of al-Bat’ha but was detected by soldiers at the outpost. Two soldiers, including a Sunni from the northern city of Kirkuk, wrestled the bomber to the ground, prompting him to detonate his payload, the official said.
«Poor people were slaughtered,» said an al-Bat’ha residentwho gave his first name, Abdul-Khaleq.
Earlier Thursday, two car bombs exploded in a busy residential and commercial area around a major Shiite shrine in Baghdad’s northwestern district of Kadhimiya, killing 15 and wounding 50, said Bareer Zuhair Jaafar at the area’s general hospital. About an hour before the Kadhimiya explosions, two motorcycles packed with explosives were detonated off a square where day laborers typically line up in the early morning for work in the congested and predominantly Shiite district of Sadr City on the capital’s east side, said residents and an official with the Ministry of Interior.
About 15 minutes later, two improvised explosive devices buried on the side of the road hit emergency crews ferrying casualties to a nearby hospital, said the same official, killing at least nine and wounding 35.
The bloodshed came as Iraq’s Shiite majority geared up to observe Arbayeen, which marks the end of the mourning period for the martyrdom in A.D. 680 of Shiite Imam Hussein and his companions in a battle against rival Muslims in the Iraqi city of Karbala. The event was a watershed moment in the schism between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
Devout Shiites observe Arbayeen by marching on foot for days to Imam Hussein’s golden-domed mausoleum in the holy city, located south of Baghdad. Along the way, the faithful erect large tents offering pilgrims a place to rest, and get food and water for the journey.
Millions typically converge on Karbala, and attacks against Shiite pilgrims in Iraq have occurred in the past, prompting the government to mobilize thousands of soldiers and police in an effort to secure the event.
On Thursday, police and army units closed the north-south side of a highway into Baghdad for pilgrims and stood guard outside dozens of pilgrim tents—each barricaded behind sand berms and wire.
A resident of Baghdad’s Sadr City district said discord among the country’s feuding political leaders was creating ample opportunities for extremists to reignite the sectarian warfare that consumed Iraq a few years ago.
«We have backed the government to the maximum, and today we hold it responsible for these security lapses,» said the resident, who gave his name as Abu Ali.
The latest government crisis, which coincided with the end of the U.S. military mission in Iraq, entered its third week. The predominantly Sunni political bloc known as Iraqiya has extended its boycott of both Parliament and the coalition government headed by Mr. Maliki, adding to the sectarian polarization gripping the country.
Iraqi leaders have yet to agree on the venue and agenda for a national conference to salvage the shaky political process as urged by U.S. officials, including Vice President Joe Biden.
Mr. Maliki and his Shiite allies say the legal case brought against prominent Iraqiya member Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who is accused of allegedly running sectarian death squads targeting Shiites, should be excluded from any talks.
Since a warrant was issued for Mr. Hashemi last month, he has been sheltered by authorities in the semiautonomous Kurdistan region, who are part of the central government in Baghdad and also run their own virtual state-within-a-state that is off-limits to security forces farther south. Mr. Hashemi has described the charges against him as a sectarian-motivated vendetta.
On Thursday, several leaders from Iraqiya met in the northern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya to decide their next move.
—Jabar Yaseen and Ali A. Nabhan in Baghdad contributed to this article.
Write to Sam Dagher at sam.dagher@wsj.com
Source: online.wsj.com