KERBALA, Iraq, (Reuters) – Twin car bombs killed at least 40 people and wounded 145 others yesterday in Iraq’s holy city of Kerbala as hundreds of thousands of Shi’ite pilgrims observed a major religious rite, health officials said.
The attack on the final and most important day of the Arbain festival was the third major strike this week against Shi’ite pilgrims amid a political furore over the banning of candidates, many of them Sunnis, from a March 7 election.
“We were walking back home in groups after we finished our rites and all of a sudden a huge explosion happened.
I saw the balls of fire and smoke rise from the scene ahead,” said pilgrim Muhammad Nasir, 31, a day labourer being treated at a hospital.
“People were running away. Security forces cordoned the scene off. There were pieces of flesh scattered around.”
A senior health official in Kerbala, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that 40 bodies had been brought in to the main hospital. Other sources put the death toll at 31.
