Twenty pilgrims killed, over 100 injured in Karbala attack

February 3, 2010

A suicide attacker driving a minibus on Wednesday killed 20 Shia pilgrims, including women and children, travelling on foot to a shrine city in central Iraq, health and security officials said. The bomber struck a crowd of pilgrims on the outskirts of Karbala, 110 kilometres south of Baghdad, in an attack that also left 117 people wounded. The pilgrims had been travelling on foot from Hilla in Babil province to Karbala to observe Friday’s Arbaeen rituals. A senior provincial health official who gave the toll said at least one woman and three children were among the dead. An interior ministry official, who confirmed the casualty toll, said the bomber detonated an explosives-laden bus. Tens of thousands of Shias, including many from neighbouring Iran, make their way annually at Arbaeen to pay homage at Imam Hussein’s shrine in Karbala, considered one of the holiest places in Shia Muslims.