Single suicide bomber kills 27 Iraqi Shi’ites

Published on 04/01/2013 00:00

A SUICIDE bomber driving a car killed at least 27 Shi’ite Muslims at a bus station in the Iraqi town of Mussayab yesterday, police said, as they were returning home from a religious rite.

The attack, which also wounded at least 60, underlines sectarian tensions that threaten to destabilise the country.

Police said the bomber drove into a busy bus station where pilgrims were taking buses back to Baghdad and the northern provinces after the Arba’een rite in the holy city of Kerbala.

The latest violence followed nearly two weeks of protests against Shi’ite prime minister Nuri al-Maliki by the minority Sunni community in the western province of Anbar.

The protesters accuse Mr Maliki of being under the sway of non-Arab Shi’ite neighbour Iran and of marginalising Sunnis, who dominated Iraqi politics and public life until the 2003 US-led invasion.