8 Shiite pilgrims die in suicide bomber attack

BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt packed with nails among Shiite worshippers Thursday in a holy city south of Baghdad, killing eight pilgrims and wounding more than 50, police and hospital officials said.

It was the second deadly attack on pilgrims in two days, in what appeared to be a Sunni extremist campaign to discredit Iraq’s mostly Shiite security forces and rekindle the sectarian conflict that nearly plunged the country into full-scale civil war two years ago.

The latest attacks, though smaller than those of past years, showed that al-Qaida and other Sunni extremists may have been severely weakened but they have not been defeated.

Thursday’s blast occurred about 200 yards from the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, the focal point of ceremonies that culminate Monday and draw hundreds of thousands of worshippers from throughout the Shiite world.

A police official said the bomber mingled in the crowd before triggering the blast. The official agreed to discuss the attack only if not quoted by name, because he was not supposed to release information to journalists.

An official at the Karbala hospital, also insisting on anonymity for the same reason, said eight people were killed and 52 wounded by the explosion.

The attack came a day after at least 12 people were killed and more than 40 wounded in bombings in Baghdad that targeted Shiite pilgrims traveling to Karbala, 50 miles to the south.

Iraqi officials have mounted an extensive security operation to protect the pilgrims, who will be celebrating Monday’s end of 40 days of mourning that follow Ashoura, the anniversary of the seventh-century death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein.