adminThe deadliest attack occurred at about 2pm local time when a car bomb hit a procession of Shi’ite pilgrims near Sanaa Square outside the holy Shi’ite shrine district of Kadhmiyah in northern Baghdad, killing 18 pilgrims and wounding 36.
An earlier car bombing took place around midday when a booby-trapped car struck a procession of Shi’ite pilgrims at an intersection in Shula district in northwestern Baghdad, killing 14 and wounding 32 others.
The pilgrims were marching on foot to return to their homes after they participated in the observation of one of the major Shi’ite rituals at Kadmiyah’s mausoleum of Imam Mussa al-Kadhim the 7th of the most sacred 12 Shi’ite Imams.
During the past few days, large crowds of pilgrims from Iraqi cities and some Muslim countries flocked to Kadhmiyah to observe the annual commemoration of the imam’s death.
Iraqi authorities estimated that the total number of pilgrims reached up to six million by the end of the event which culminated on Friday and ended on Saturday.
“We have received more than six million pilgrims for the past few days until Saturday noon. Some came from other countries,” Fadhel al-Anbari, head of Kadhmiyah shrine told Xinhua.
Black-clad men and women from different ages in processions or individuals, some of them waving black, green and red flags, flocked to Kadhmiyah and gathered outside the shrine and took part in the imam’s symbolic coffin funeral.
Some pilgrims beat their chests and heads and performed self-flagellation with chains in honour of the imam who was poisoned to death while in prison in the year 977AD, during the Abbasid era.
During the days of the religious event Iraqi authorities tightened security measures, as dozens of thousands of Iraqi security troops manned dozens of checkpoints and patrolled the routes of the worshippers across Baghdad, while army helicopters hovered overhead. — RT.
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