Insurgents targeted Shiite Muslims in a series of suicide strikes and bombings across Baghdad onSaturday, killing 30 people and wounding around 130 on the holiest day of the Shiite religiouscalendar. Other attacks on Iraqi security forces across the country, part of the daily drumbeat of Iraq'sinsurgency, took the death toll nationwide to at least 40 in one of the most violent days the countryhas seen since its historic Jan. 30 election. Iraq's security forces had been braced for attacks in thesouthern holy city of Karbala, where more than 170 pilgrims were killed during the Shiite ritual ofAshura last year. But guerrillas targeted the capital, which has borne the brunt of violence since lastmonth's elections.
In the worst sectarian attack, a man wearing a vest laden with explosives boarded a bus close to aShiite mosque in the Khadamiya neighborhood and blew himself up, according to witnesses and theU.S. military. Police said 17 people were killed and 41 wounded. A Reuters photographer at thescene said bodies were lying in the road, blown apart and scorched. The orange bus was torn almostin half and reduced to a burnt wreck. In a separate attack in the same area, a suicide bomber blewhimself up after an exchange of fire with security forces. One U.S. soldier was killed. Earlier, a suicidebomber on a moped attacked a group of people at the funeral of a woman killed in a bombing onFriday. Four mourners were killed and 39 wounded, hospital officials said. In total 129 were woundedin Baghdad, police said.
While the capital was rocked by the blasts, Shiites in Karbala were able to observe Ashura in relativepeace. Officials said several hundred thousand pilgrims marched through the city's streets, chanting,beating their breasts and crying "Hussein" in honor of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the ProphetMohammad, who died in battle in 680 A.D. Some cut themselves with knives in a symbolic act ofatonement for Hussein's death. Traffic was banned around the city to limit the threat of car bombs,and local residents helped set up checkpoints. This year's Ashura came days after results from Iraq'sJan. 30 election confirmed Shi'ites would dominate the new national parliament at the expense ofSunni Arabs who held sway under Saddam Hussein and before. Shiites have been repeatedlyattacked by guerrillas who the government says are trying to spark a sectarian war. Shi' ite religiousleaders have urged restraint from their followers andsaid they had expected some attacks on Ashura.
