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| English.news.cn 2011-01-23 20:37:45 |  Feedback  Print RSS  |
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A policeman films the remains of a vehicle used in a bomb attack in Baghdad's Ilaam district January 23, 2011. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) |
BAGHDAD, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Five car bombs and a roadside bomb explosions in and near Baghdad on Sunday killed a total of eight people and wounded 24 others, as part of the latest wave of violence ahead of major Shiite ritual.
One of the attacks took place at 7:00 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) when a booby-trapped car explosion struck a police vehicle patrolling in al-E'ilam neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, killing a policeman and a civilian and wounding four policemen and four civilians, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The attack occurred at a morning rush hour as people were heading to work after the end of the country's weekend.
Another car bomb parked near Dyana Hotel on Abu Nawas Street in central Baghdad detonated and killed a civilian and wounded six others, the source said.
In a separate incident, another car bomb went off in al-Taji area, some 15 km north of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four, he said.
A third car bomb ripped through al-Zeyout Intersection in Baghdad's central district of Karrada, wounding four people, the source added.
The fourth car bomb struck a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims in the mostly Shiite district of Kadhmiyah in northern Baghdad, killing a pilgrim and wounding eight others, the ministry source said.
Insurgents frequently attacked Iranian pilgrims who flock in large numbers to Iraq to visit holy Shiite shrines since the U.S.- led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime and set up Shiite-led government.
Also in the day, two school children brothers were killed and two others wounded, when a roadside bomb detonated in the town of Tarmiyah, some 40 km north of Baghdad, the source said.
The bomb, apparently, was targeting Iraqi army patrols which usually use the road, the source added.
The series of bomb attacks also came as tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are converging from outside Iraq and from different Iraqi provinces to the holy shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala to commemorate the major ritual of Arbaeen.
Arbaeen is the end of 40 days of mourning for the Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, who was killed at the battle of Karbala in 680 A.D.
Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks continue in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease of violence over the last three years.
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