Bomb attacks kill 23 Shiite pilgrims in Iraq

Up to 23 people were killed and 90 wounded in bomb attacks targeted Shiite pilgrims commemorating religious rituals of Ashura in Iraq on Thursday, police and medics said. The deadliest attack occurred around noon in Diyala province when a suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest at a procession of Shiite pilgrims at a village near the city of Sa'diyah, some 120 km northeast of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing at least 16 pilgrims and wounding 64, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Earlier in the day, another attack targeted Shiite worshippers near the town of Hafriyah, some 50 km southeast of Baghdad, when three roadside bombs detonated coordinately near a procession of Shiite pilgrims and killed up to seven pilgrims and wounded 24, a medical source from a local health office anonymously told Xinhua. Earlier, a police source put the toll at three killed and 14 wounded by one roadside bomb. In northern Iraq, two roadside bombs went off near a procession of Shiite pilgrims in the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, wounding two worshippers, including a ten-year-old child, a local police source told Xinhua. The pilgrims were observing Ashura commemoration rituals that mark the death of Imam Hussein, one of the Shiite's 12 most revered Imams, who was killed in 680 AD and buried in Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad. Insurgents frequently attacked Shiite pilgrims who perform communal rituals in the Iraqi cities, killing and wounding hundreds of them in attempts to provoke sectarian strife in the violence-shattered country. Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, almost 7, 000 Iraqis were killed and over 16,000 others injured from January to October this year.