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11 Kurd Shiite pilgrims killed in Iraq
blast
30.1.2007
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January 30, 2007
Baghdad, Iraq, -- Eleven Kurdish Shiite
pilgrims were killed in an explosion northeast of
Baghdad on Tuesday as they headed to
mosque on the final day of the Ashura (Shiite Holy
Day) mourning rite, police said.
The explosion rocked the centre of the Kurdish city
of Khanaqin, a town
in the restive province of Diyala, police Colonel
Azad Issa told AFP, adding that another 39 people
were wounded.
A device hidden in a garbage can killed at least 12
people and wounded 39 others when it detonated today
amid pilgrims in Khanaqin, northeast Iraq, President
Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party
said in a statement on its Arabic- language Web
site. The city is 140 kilometers (87 miles)
northeast of Baghdad.
A suicide bomber killed 16 people and wounded 57 at
a Shiite mosque near Balad Ruz, 80 kilometers
southwest of Khanaqin and about 52 kilometers west
of the Iranian border, the PUK said.
The victims of both blasts were worshippers taking
part in the final day of the Ashura festival, the
PUK said. The event involves 10 days of mourning the
death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet
Muhammad, whom Shiites believe was killed by the
Caliph Yazid's armies at the battle of Karbala in
680.
Khanaqin, along with Kirkuk to its west, is one of
northern Iraq's oil-rich areas. During the rule of
former leader Saddam Hussein, the city underwent a
process of ``Arabization'' to expel Kurds from the
city.
AFP | Agencies
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