At least 43 Shiites have been killed during three attacks in Iraq. At least 13 people were killed Tuesday after a bomb left in a garbage can hit Shiites during ceremonies marking Ashoura in a town near the Iranian border, police said. At least 39 were injured.
About an hour later, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the entrance of a Shiite mosque in Mandali, a predominantly Shiite town also near the Iranian border. At least 23 people died and 40 were injured in that attack, police said.
The blast that killed 13 hit as scores of Shiites were gathered in downtown Khanaqin performing rituals on the holiest day on the Shiite Islamic calendar. According to the AP, Police Maj. Idriss Mohammed said at least 13 people were killed and 39 were wounded, adding that most of the victims were Shiite Kurds.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi army said it killed the leader of the heavily armed cult during a fierce gunbattle on Monday aimed at foiling an attack on leading Shiite clerics and pilgrims in the city of Najaf who were celebrating Ashoura. Senior Iraqi security officers said three gunmen of "the Soldiers of Heaven" cult were captured in Najaf after renting a hotel room in front of the office of Iraq's most senior Shiite spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, with plans to attack it.
Meanwhile, gunmen on Tuesday ambushed a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims marking Ashoura, killing at least seven people and wounding seven, police said. The armed men drove by the bus in two cars and opened fire on the occupants, then sped away, police said. The attack occurred about 10:30 a.m. in the western district of Hay al-Amil, a religiously mixed area.
Also Tuesday, a U.S. Marine was killed in fighting in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, while a soldier died in an accident elsewhere, the military said.
The deaths raises to at least 3,086 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
