A bomb tore through a procession of Shiite pilgrims heading toward a largely Sunni town in southern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 53 people in the latest sign of a power struggle between rival Muslim sects that has escalated since the US military withdrawal.
Fears of more bloodshed have risen in recent weeks, with the US no longer enjoying the leverage it once had to encourage the two sides to work together to rein in extremists. Most of the latest attacks appear to be aimed at Iraq’s majority Shiites, suggesting Sunni insurgents seeking to undermine the Shiite-dominated government are to blame.
Saturday’s blast happened on the last of the 40 days of Arbaeen, when hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims travel to the Iraqi city of Karbala and other holy sites.
Photo: EPA
The end of Arbaeen is one of the most sacred times for Shiites and public processions to commemorate it were banned under former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
The blast occurred near the town of Zubair as pilgrims marched from the nearby port city of Basra toward the Imam Ali shrine on the outskirts of the town, said Ayad al-Emarah, a spokesman for the governor of Basra Province.
The shrine is an enclave within an enclave — a Shiite site on the edge of a predominantly Sunni town in an otherwise mostly Shiite province.
There were conflicting reports of what caused the blast, with some officials saying a roadside bomb was to blame.
However, witnesses at the scene described the perpetrator as a suicide bomber disguised as a volunteer handing out juice and food to pilgrims. Ali Ghanim al-Maliki, the head of the Basra provincial council, corroborated that account in an interview with Iraqiya state television.
Arbaeen marks the end of 40 days of mourning following the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein, a revered Shiite figure who was the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.
Pilgrims who cannot make it to Imam Hussein’s grave in the holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, often journey to other sacred sites such as the shrine near Zubair.
“I saw several dead bodies and wounded people, including children on the ground asking for help. There were also some baby strollers left behind at the blast site,” said Majid Hussein, a government employee, who was one of the pilgrims heading to the shrine.
At least 53 people were killed and more than 130 wounded in the blast, said Riyadh Abdul-Amir, the head of Basra Health Directorate.
The US embassy strongly condemned the attack, saying such acts of violence “tear at the fabric of Iraqi unity.”
Many pilgrims were undeterred and continued on the bloodstained road despite the explosion. Shoes and slippers, as well as the remains of abayas, the long black cloaks most women wear in public, littered the side of the road.
The attack bore the hallmarks of Sunni extremists, who believe Shiites are not true Muslims. It was the latest in a series of deadly strikes during this year’s Arbaeen.
More than 145 people have been killed in attacks seen to be aimed at Shiites since the start of the year.
The largest of the Arbaeen attacks — a wave of apparently coordinated bombings in Baghdad and outside the southern city of Nasiriyah — killed at least 78 people on Jan. 5. It was the deadliest strike in Iraq in more than a year.
So far there has been little sign of the revenge attacks by Shiite militias that brought the country to the edge of civil war in 2006.
Shiite Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has tried with some success to bring the militias’ supporters into the political process, but many of their members retain their weapons and could again take up arms.
In the evening, a parked car bomb exploded near a security checkpoint in Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit, killing one policeman and wounding four, police said.
The latest violence comes at a particularly tense time.
The last US combat troops left Iraq on Dec. 18. Many Iraqis resented the foreign presence, but the US presence also guaranteed the “status quo.”
Many of Iraq’s minority Sunnis, who dominated the government under Saddam’s dictatorship, now fear being marginalized in the now Shiite-led country following the US’ departure. They also resent what they see as Shiite heavyweight Iran’s meddling in the country’s domestic affairs.
“The whole situation is very tense. Sectarianism is coming back in force in this country,” said Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who heads the Sunni-backed Iraqiya party, in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS set to air yesterday.
“Iraq is now passing through the most dangerous phase of its history,” he added.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in