Female suicide bomber kills 35 in Baghdad

BOMB HORROR: Sunday's atrocity is the latest to hit Baghdad. (AFP - for illustrative purposes only)

A female suicide bomber killed 35 civilians, including women and children, and wounded 65 others on a religious march near the Kadhimiyah shrine in northern Baghdad on Sunday, a government official said.

"A woman wearing an explosive belt blew herself up near one of the gates of the shrine," Iraqi spokesman for security operations in Baghdad Major General Qassim Atta told AFP.

"Accoding to our first preliminary report 35 were killed and 65 injured. Most of them were Iranian pilgrims and women and children," Atta said, describing the force of the blast as "very big."

A defence ministry official said the attack came at about midday UAE time as Iranian pilgrims took part in the procession related to the Ashura ceremonies that climax on January 7.

The festival mourns the killing of Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in the year 680. It is characterised by processions of wailing men beating their chests and engaged in devotional self-flagellation.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Priorities
Posted by Doug, Dubai on Monday 12 January 2009 at 15:56 UAE time

Sorry, are you honestly saying the real serious problem in the article is a slight historical inaccuracy, and not the fact that someone thought it was perfectly acceptable to blow themselves up and take another 35 people with them?

Sort out your priorities. Seriously. People are getting murdered and all you can do is nitpick over semantics?

SERIOUS OBJECTIONABLE MATTER
Posted by Mohammad Khan, Ankara, Turkey on Sunday 11 January 2009 at 13:31 UAE time

The statement "The festival mourns the killing of Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in the year 680. It is characterised by processions of wailing men beating their chests and engaged in devotional self-flagellation." has a serious error and the person responsible should immediately publish an apology for such a serious mistake. Yazid cannot be allayed to sunni's faith. That time there were no sunni or shia. Please someone should tell the author to appologise on this matter as he or she has no idea about Islamic history.

Female Suicide Bomber kills 35 in Baghdad
Posted by Baqar Raza, Dubai, UAE on Monday 5 January 2009 at 14:38 UAE time

Please note a statement from the above article "The festival mourns the killing of Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in the year 680". Yazid was not Sunni or Muslim. And I have a strong objection on this statement of Declaring Yazid a Sunni. No Sunni Martyred Imam Hussain (AS) Rather all Sunni accept the month of Muharram as sorrowful Month. Anyone who kills innocent people cant be a Muslim and so was not Yazid a Muslim.

Thanks and regards.

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