Attack hits Shiites amid Ashura commemorations

KARBALA: Violence struck Shiite worshippers in north Iraq Sunday, while hundreds of thousands of pilgrims marked the climax of Ashura commemorations in the holy shrine city of Karbala.

The attack on worshippers near Kirkuk was the latest in a spate of violence targeting Shiites in recent days, prompting security forces to beef up their presence in Karbala in central Iraq, the main focus of the Ashura events.

In Sunday's attack in the Shiite Turkmen village of Taza Kharmatu near Kirkuk, a bomb ripped through a procession marking Ashura, killing four people and wounding 19, police said.

The attack came a day after three Shiites were killed when bombs struck separate Ashura processions in Baghdad.

Since Tuesday, 32 people have been killed and more than 160 wounded in violence targeting Ashura, including attacks on worshippers in Karbala and Baghdad.

In Karbala, meanwhile, black flags, representing the sadness of Shiites during Ashura, were seen all over the city, along with pictures of Imam Hussein (R.A) and Imam Abbas (R.A), who are both buried here.

Masses of pilgrims, most of them dressed in black, gathered around the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala's Old City for the climax of the 10-day Ashura rituals, which commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein (R.A), a grandson of the Holy Prophet Hazrat Mohammed Mustafa (Peace Be Upon Him), by armies of Yazid in 680 after Madina migration.

Karbala police chief General Ali Jassim Mohammed said that around 25,000 policemen and soldiers had been deployed to secure the commemoration ceremonies.

During Ashura in March 2004, near-simultaneous bombings at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad and in Karbala killed more than 170 people.