Dubai: A car bomb exploded at a men’s mourning wake tent in Shulah district, a mainly Shiite area in Baghdad, Thursday.
The blast was the deadliest in a series of bombings yesterday that claimed 53 lives in total across the city.
The blast took place as the car entered the mourning tent blasting a few seconds later.
Witnesses said the car was driven by a suicide bomber who struck the funeral tent which was filled with mourners.
Baghdad’s Shulah district, close to Al Sadir City, was a former stronghold of Muqtada Al Sadr. Shulah is believed to be a hot bed for the anti–US Asaib Al Haq group which split from the Al Sadir movement a while ago.
Firas Al Fuadi, a Baghdad TV presenter told Gulf News that the death toll was on the raise as many of the 140 people wounded are in a critical condition.
Al Fuadi also pointed out that he witnessed blood all over the premises with a number of cars exploding triggered by the first car blast, filling the atmosphere with smoke and fire.
The Shulah blast topped a series of bombings in Iraq that have killed more than 150 people and wounded more than 500 in the past two weeks, which marked the annual commutation of Imam Hussain Bin Ali.
Suspected Al Qaida terrorists had launched suicide attacks against innocent Iraqis in Kerbala, Diala, Baghdad and other locations, targeting Shiite visitors walking into the holy Shiite city of Kerbala in southern Iraq.
