Several explosions rocked major Shiite shrines in Karbala and in Baghdad Tuesday morning where thousands of pilgrims were gathered for a religious festival, killing more than 140 people and wounding about 500 others.
There were conflicting reports on the exact number of people killed. According to Iraq's Health Minister, at least 58 people were killed and 128 people injured in the Baghdad attack. Other reports suggested at least 80 people were killed in the capital.
"I have visited four hospitals, there are 58 dead and 128 wounded but the toll may rise because more people are arriving," Health Minister Khdeir Abbas told reporters.
In Karbala, some 80 kilometers south of the capital, five blasts went off shortly after 10 am (local time) almost simultaneously near two major Shiite shrines, throwing bodies for yards and sending crowds of pilgrims into a panic in the city.
The blasts in Karbala killed 50 to 60 people, said Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a senior member of a Shiite political party represented on the U.S.-appointed Governing Council. Doctors in Karbala said they expected the death toll there to rise to as high as 100.
There were varying reports on the cause of the blasts. Witnesses said it was a suicide bomber but an Iraqi police spokesman in Karbala reported that mortars were fired at the shrines.
Meanwhile, in Baghdad, three explosions targeted the Kazimiya shrine, too, killing and injuring scores of people. Police sealed off the area while panicked people fled screaming and ambulances raced to the scene. Dozens of armed men in civilian clothes tried to maintain order.
Some witnesses at Kazimiya said the blasts were carried out by suicide bombers. The Kazimiya shrine in northern Baghdad contains the tombs of two other Shiite saints, Imam Mousa Kazem and his grandson Imam Muhammad al-Jawad.
However, a US military spokesman said blasts at the Shiite shrine in Baghdad were caused by four mortar rounds. The mortars were reportedly fired from an unknown location, hitting in and around the Kazimiya shrine, the spokesman said. In the chaos afterward, an Iraqi policeman was shot in the head and killed by small arms fire, he added.
Shiites were gathered at the shrines to mark Ashoura, a mourning festival commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a top Shiite saint and the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Iraqi Governing Council condemned the "evil and terrorism that targets Iraqi unity and seeks to enflame divisions among the people" in a statement read by Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni member of the council.
U.S. officials and Iraqi leaders named an al-Qaeda-linked Jordanian activist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a "prime suspect" for the attacks, saying he seeks to spark a Sunni-Shiite civil war to wreck American plans to hand over power to the Iraqis on June 30.
But some Shiites lashed out at U.S. forces, accusing them of not maintaining security on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar.
A spokesman for Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, blamed American soldiers for the attacks, saying they were responsible for the security. Sheikh Hamed Khafaf said U.S. officials had ignored repeated requests to bolster security for the pilgrims.
"Those behind this painful incident have no links with Islam ... . The criminal who target innocents and Muslims in this holy place and on this pure land is not a Muslim," said Ali Abdul-Karim al-Safi al-Musawi, an al-Sistani representative in Basra, in southern Iraq.
In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid- Reza Asefi condemned the explosions, calling the incidents as "brutal."
Asefi questioned, "How can one take a terrorist move and kill the innocent and defenseless people, who mourned with love in their sanctities in a spiritual and holy place?"
Definitely, he said, those committing such crimes are not the least humane. According to IRNA, he stressed that the Iraqi Governing Council should be more wise and prudent and be watchful of the events.
Informed sources said there are a number of Iranians among the victims. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
