Several killed in Baghdad blasts during pilgrimage

Baghdad: Three women bombers blew themselves up on Monday in a crowd of Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad, one of a string of attacks in Iraq that killed at least 56 people, undermining hopes of a drop in violence.

Scores of people were also wounded in the attacks, which come after a relative lull in the sectarian violence that has ravaged the country since February 2006, when insurgents blew up a Shiite mosque in the central city of Samarra.

The triple attack in Baghdad killed at least 25 pilgrims as they headed to a holy shrine for a major religious ceremony on the Shiite calendar that has been marred by bloodshed in the past, security officials said. Among the dead in the Baghdad bombings were women and children, security and hospital officials said, adding that about 70 other people were injured.

Residents in the capital were left in a state of shock following the attacks, many had started to believe security conditions were improving.

Confused

"I was shocked at what took place in the Al Karrada neighbourhood, I had my dreams and projects for the improvement of security in past months, but now I'm very concerned, confused and fearful," Muhanad Al Saffar, a resident of the Al Karrada neighbourhood, who owns a clothes shop, told Gulf News.

In many neighbourhoods in Baghdad the population was becoming more optimistic over improved security conditions and many of them had started to repair their homes. Some had even called relatives who had fled abroad from the war-ravaged country asking them to to return home but the Al Karrada blasts have shattered their optimism.

Ahmad Al Qaisi, a doctor who lives in the Al Saadoon ares close to Al Karrada told Gulf News: "I did not believe the news which talked about the bombings in Al Karrada, and when I saw the pictures of these explosions and pictures of the victims of Shiite visitors, I was amazed and all my thoughts and optimism declined significantly and therefore I hope that what happened in Al Karrada was a mere storm in a teacup."

Another 27 people died and 126 others were wounded in a suicide bombing during a protest rally in the northern city of Kirkuk, and gunfire in a panicked stampede that followed, local officials said.

Demonstrators were protesting against the enactment of the provincial council elections by the Iraqi parliament, which has met with strong opposition from Kurds.

"I was always touched by this coexistence and peace between Arabs and Turkmen and Kurds in Kirkuk and I think that the blasts that targeted the Kurdish demonstration and killed and wounded hundreds of demonstrators, it may demolish this coexistence, especially if such terrorist attacks are repeated.

"I felt shocked and am deeply afraid of terrorists continuing to exploit the subject of controversy about the law of the provincial council elections in the city, dragging people into an Arab-Kurdish civil war," Farhad Khalil, a 53-year-old Kurdish citizen told Gulf News.