A string of attacks against Shiite pilgrims in the past three days killed 68 people in Baghdad, security officials said yesterday, exposing the continued ability of insurgents to inflict bloodshed.
The death toll was another blow to the leaders of a country that remains dogged by sectarian strife and has only a caretaker government more than four months after a general election in which no clear winner emerged.
Almost half of those killed — 28 — died on Wednesday night when a suicide bomber wearing an explosives-filled belt struck pilgrims in Adhamiyah, a Sunni district across the Tigris river from Kadhimiyah, in the north of the capital.
Kadhimiyah is named after Musa Kadhim, the seventh of 12 revered imams in Shiite Islam, who was poisoned in 799AD, and whose death the pilgrims have honored in recent days.
Many of the faithful cross a bridge between the two neighboring districts to reach the shrine. The suicide bomber also wounded 136 people, while 11 more were killed in other bomb attacks across the capital on Wednesday.
The new death toll issued yesterday came as tens of thousands of Shiite faithful started to disperse from the shrine and make their way home amid chaotic scenes as many of them looked for a lift from passing cars and buses.
Four bombings in the capital yesterday killed nine people and brought the number of wounded to more than 400 people since Tuesday, the officials said.
A roadside bomb in the central Bab al-Muazam neighborhood killed four people and wounded 46, while a second bomb in the southeastern Mashtal district killed three and wounded 31, a security official said.
The Shiite majority in Iraq have been a main target of Sunni Arab armed groups since the US-led invasion of 2003 toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime.
Pilgrimages to the Shiite holy places have been repeatedly hit.
Tens of thousands of Shiite worshippers streamed into Baghdad in recent days amid heavy security for the pilgrimage.
Traffic was banned on Tuesday on several bridges spanning the Tigris River, increasing already serious congestion in the capital, where control on vehicles is complicated by hundreds of security checkpoints.
Motorcycles and carts were also prohibited, but even heightened measures failed to protect them as they traveled to the mausoleum, which had previously been targeted.
In April last year, two female suicide bombers detonated their payloads near the shrine, killing 65 people, including 20 Iranian pilgrims, and wounding 120 others.
However, the threat of violence did not dent the enthusiasm of worshippers, some of whom were planning to pray for a breakthrough in the political deadlock that has blocked a new government taking office after March 7 parliamentary polls.
Iyad Allawi, a Shiite former prime minister, insists that as the election’s narrow victor he should become prime minister, especially as his broadly secular Iraqiya coalition had strong backing in Sunni-dominated provinces.
He has warned that a failure to see Sunni Arab voters properly represented in power could reignite the sectarian violence that saw tens of thousands killed in the years following the ouster of Hussein.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
RSS