Baghdad car bomb targeting pilgrims kills seven

Attack takes place in central neighbourhood of Karrada as Shiite worshipers walk to religious shrine

By AFP 9 May 2015, 2:55 pm

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Illustrative photo of a car bombing in the Karradah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq (photo credit: AP/Hadi Mizban)

A car bomb blast targeting Shiite pilgrims on an annual march to a Baghdad shrine killed at least seven people Saturday and wounded 20, security and medical sources said.

“A car parked near Kahramana square exploded… It was targeting Shiite pilgrims,” a police colonel said.

An Iraqi interior ministry official said at least seven people were killed and 20 wounded in the blast, which sent a plume of dark smoke billowing into the sky above the central neighbourhood of Karrada.

A medical source confirmed the casualty toll.

Worshippers have in recent days started walking to Kadhimiya, site of a shrine dedicated to Imam Musa Kadhim, the seventh of 12 revered imams in Shiite Islam, who died in 799 AD.

Security forces close some streets to traffic for the days-long pilgrimage, during which the marching worshippers and the hundreds of tents along their path where they can rest, eat and drink are considered particularly vulnerable to attacks.