Bombs target Shiite pilgrims, police in Baghdad

[August 14, 2008]  BAGHDAD (AP) -- Two roadside bombs went off Thursday in separate Baghdad locations, killing one policeman and wounding 17 people, including 14 Shiite pilgrims headed on foot to the holy city of Karbala for a major religious festival, police said.

The first bomb, in the southeastern district of Zafaraniyah, killed the policeman and wounded nine others -- six pilgrims and three policemen, a police official said. The second, in the central Alwiya district, wounded eight pilgrims, all males in their late teens and early 20s, another police official said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The Shabaniyah festival, which climaxes over the weekend, marks the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, the 12th Shiite imam, who disappeared in the 9th century. Devout Shiites believe he will return to Earth to restore peace and harmony.

Shiite religious festivals have often been targeted by militants from al-Qaida in Iraq, the country's deadliest Sunni terror group.

Thousands of Shiite pilgrims have been killed since the ouster of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime in 2003 when followers of Iraq's majority sect began to celebrate their religious holidays openly and in large numbers.

Shiite political parties are known to encourage huge turnouts for the festivals to display the sect's empowerment after years of marginalization by the minority Sunni Arabs.

The last deadly attack against Shiite pilgrims was last month, when three female suicide bombers struck Shiite pilgrims in nearly simultaneous bombings in Baghdad, killing at least 32 people and wounding more than 100.

The bombers were walking among pilgrims streaming in their annual march to the golden domed shrine of the eighth-century imam Moussa al-Kadhim in Kazimiyah.

In Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, police spokesman Rahman Meshawi said additional police and army forces have arrived in the city to beef up security for the Shabaniyah, which is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across Iraq.

He put the additional forces at seven battalions -- three each from the defense and interior ministries and one assembled from security forces in neighboring provinces. He gave no figures, but Iraqi police and army battalions are usually around 300 men each.

Last year's Shabaniyah was marred by deadly clashes between gunmen loyal to two rival Shiite groups, leaving scores killed and wounded.

In other incidents of violence Thursday, gunmen shot dead an off-duty policeman and army soldier in separate incidents in the northern city of Mosul.

[Associated Press; By BUSHRA JUHI]

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