Wave of attacks against Shiites leaves over 70 dead in Iraq

A series of bomb attacks on Wednesday left over 70 dead and 250 wounded in Iraq, when the Shiite community prepares to commemorate the death of one of the main magnet of their religion. This is the most violent wave of attacks since January 5, when similar attacks killed 68 people in Baghdad and Nasiriya (south). Sunni extremists who consider Shiites heretics pilgrims, multiply their attacks mainly during religious festivals, which usually gather crowds of the faithful in the country. We recorded 42 attacks on the morning of Wednesday in Baghdad, Hilla, Karbala, Azizia, Balad, Baaquba (center of the country), Kirkuk and Mosul (north). Eighteen attacks were committed with car bombs and bomb 17. Five men armed attacks also took place. The most violent attack happened in the city of Hilla, 95 miles from Baghdad, where explosions of two car bombs caused the deaths of 28 people and left 53 wounded. In Baghdad, where at least a dozen attacks were committed in several districts, 20 people were killed and 51 wounded. The attacks coincide with the preparations in Baghdad Anniversary celebration of the death of Musa al-Kazem, the seventh of 12 imams revered by Shiites duodecimanos, the greater tendency of the Shiite religion. A car bomb exploded in the Shiite district of Kazamiya, north of the capital, where ceremonies were held in honor of the Imam, buried in a mausoleum in one place. The bomb that exploded in a poor residential area, completely destroyed the minibus that was carrying. The explosion caused between 4 and 7 killed, according to local officials. "The explosion happened at 5:00 AM (at 23:00 GMT). Everyone was asleep. At the moment I could not see anything because of the smoke and dust. Then I saw three bodies, two children and a lady, they were dead," he testified Abdul Zahra Abdul Sada, 57, inhabitant. "I live far from the explosion, but she was so strong that it destroyed the roof of my house. I pulled the children from the rubble of the roof," he told AFP Saad Hussein, 35 years. Car bombs also exploded in the Shiite district of Nahrawan in the extreme south of Baghdad and Karrada, a mixed zone of the center of the capital, where many Shiite pilgrims gathered to participate in the ceremonies. Near Baaquba, capital of volatile Diyala province (center), ten bombs exploded in different parts of the city, killing over ten people and injuring over 50. Other people have been killed by the explosion of three car bombs in Kirkuk, officials said security and medical. Covering this series of attacks, an AFP reporter, Marwan Ibrahim, was seriously wounded by a car bomb. Marwan Ibrahim, 34, who is a journalist and photographer for AFP since 2003, was injured when he went to the place of an attack. He suffered several burns and bruises, bleeding and deafness in his right ear. Violence in Iraq has declined in recent years but remains almost daily: 132 people died in attacks during the month of May, according to official statistics.