Shia targeted in fresh Iraq attacks

Two attacks on Shia pilgrims returning from the holy city of Kerbala left at least 28 people dead on Friday, the latest in a series of bombings that appear designed to inflame sectarian tension ahead of elections scheduled for March 7.

The deadliest attack was a car bomb near Hindia, a village north east of Kerbala, which is south of Baghdad.

Iraqi police officials said a suicide bomber in a vehicle had killed at least 27 people and wounded at least 75 others. Investigators were trying to determine whether there had been one or two explosions.

Later, in Dora, a mostly Sunni southwestern neighbourhood in the capital, a small bomb inside a bus transporting Shia pilgrims from Kerbala had killed one person and wounded 15, Iraqi police officials said.

Friday’s attack marred the culmination of Arbaeen, the climax of a 40-day mourning period observing the death of the slain grandson of the prophet Mohamed.

Millions of devout Shia travel to Kerbala for the festival to pay their respects at the main shrine in the city, where the revered Shia figure is said to be buried.

Attacks targeting pilgrims on Monday and Wednesday killed at least 61 people. Iraqi and US officials said insurgents appear to be attacking pilgrims in an effort to discredit the Iraqi government, its security forces and widen the sectarian rift.

Between 2004 and 2007 a series of mass casualty attacks fuelled sectarian tensions in Iraq amid fears that the country was going to tip into civil war.