Blast kills 53 on last day of pilgrimages

A BOMB killed at least 53 Shiite pilgrims near the southern Iraqi city of Basra yesterday.

It was the latest in a series of incidents during Shiite religious commemorations that have killed scores of people and threaten to further increase sectarian tensions just weeks after the withdrawal of American forces.

The bomb exploded on the last of the 40 days of Arbaeen, when hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims visit Karbala and other holy sites.

Yesterday’s blast occurred near the town of Zubair as pilgrims marched toward the Shiite Imam Ali shrine. There were conflicting reports on the source of the blast, but an Iraqi military intelligence officer said it was a roadside bomb. Basra hospital received 53 dead and 137 wounded, said Dr Riyadh Abdul-Amir, the head of Basra Health Directorate. He said some of the wounded were in serious condition, and warned the death toll may rise further.

Majid Hussein, one of the pilgrims heading to the shrine, said people began running away in panic when they heard a loud explosion.

“I saw several dead bodies and wounded people, including children, on the ground asking for help. There were also some baby strollers left at the blast site,” he said.

The attack, which bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents, is the latest in a series of deadly strikes in this year’s Arbaeen. More than 145 people have been killed.

The largest of the attacks – a wave of apparently co-ordinated bombings in Baghdad and outside the southern city of Nasiriyah – killed at least 78 people on 5 January. It was the deadliest strike in Iraq in more than a year.

There has been little sign of the revenge attacks by Shiite militias and others that brought the country to the edge of civil war in 2006. But this wave of attacks comes at a particularly tense time.

The last US combat troops left on 18 December. Many Iraqis resented the foreign presence, but the Americans also guaranteed the status quo. Many Sunnis fear being marginalised in the now Shiite-dominated country.

On Friday, deputy prime minister Saleh al-Mutlaq called for prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to step down or face a parliamentary vote of no-confidence. Mutlaq’s Sunni-backed Iraqiya party has boycotted parliament and cabinet meetings since last month to protest against what it sees as efforts by Maliki to consolidate power, particularly over state security forces.