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Moments
after the attack, stunned Iraqis walk among the victims and debris
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KARBALA,
Iraq, March 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraqi officials
have said that a total of at least 182 people were killed and more than
550 wounded when Shiite shrines in the holy city of Karbala and the
capital Baghdad came under a series of attack Tuesday, March 2, as
thousands of Shiites converged for the final day of a major religious
festival.
In
the city of Karbala, attacks at an estimated two million Shiite,
including many Iranians, leaving 112 people dead.
Dozens
of others were injured in five coordinated blasts, according to
Aljazeera’s correspondent.
Also
on Tuesday, at least 70 people were killed when four blasts rocked a
Shiite mosque in the north of Baghdad.
Earlier
Ahmed Al-Hillali, the judge investigating the attacks, told
Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the blasts killed 85 people and
wounded 240 in Karbala.
While
Iraqi Health Minister Khdeir Abbas said at least 54 were killed in
Baghdad, 110 kilometers to the north while as many as 300 were wounded.
"I
saw a man running into a group of Iranian pilgrims and exploding
himself," Karbala police Captain Mahdi Ghanami told AFP.
"The
bomb claimed 25 victims."
Iranian
interior ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani told AFP that some
40-50 Iranian pilgrims were killed or wounded in the simultaneous
explosions in Karbala and Baghdad.
An
AFP reporter saw at least 50 bodies piled up outside Karbala main
hospital after a number of blasts rocked the sacred Shiite city.
Earlier,
the Karbala police chief told Reuters that the series of blasts in the
city killed at least 70 people.
"So
far there are 70 dead, both Iraqis and Iranians," Colonel Raed
Nabil said.
Police
said rockets had fallen near one of the two holiest Shiite shrines in
the city, while witnesses thought hidden bombs had exploded.
AFP
correspondent counted at least five explosions and saw smoke rising from
the areas of the Abbas and Al-Hussein shrines, where Shiites celebrated
Ashura religious festival freely for the first time in decades.
A
senior police officer, Major Chasb Jaburi, said four Iranians and one
Iraqi had been arrested, but the Iranians would be released as they were
not involved.
The
Iraqi was still being investigated.
Shiites
were mourning the killing of Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Al-Hussein
in 61 A.H. (680 A.D.) in a battle near Karbala.
Imam
Al-Hussein is buried in Karbala along with his half-brother Abbas.
Hundreds
of thousands of Shiites from Iraq and other countries, including Iran, descended
Monday, March 1, on Karbala to mark Ashura.
The
blasts brought chaos to the city, as passers-by struggled to help the
wounded, loading them onto wooden carts, into blankets or just picking
up badly injured people dripping blood and running off with them for
help.
The
whole area had been sealed off to cars and the first ambulances to be
seen arrived well after the blasts.
Karbala
hotel owner Aziz Aziz Mazhat, who said he saw at least 20 bodies lying
in the street below, raged against U.S. President George W. Bush.
"You
came here to get rid of Saddam but you do not protect us," he said.
"What
happened today is the start of civil war against everyone, including
Americans, who wants to hurt Iraq ".
After
the blasts near the Abbas mausoleum, an AFP correspondent saw crowds set
on a man, kicking him senseless, punching him and throwing rocks at him,
while shots were fired in the air.
Baghdad
In
the capital, security guards said four suicide attackers blew themselves
up at the Kazimiyah mosque in northwest Baghdad, while Kimmitt said
three were involved.
"There
were four suicide attackers. One blew himself up at the entrance of the
mosque, the other in the heart of the building, and the other two at a
side entrance," said Diya Ismail, one of the guards.
He
said that he found a hand still clutching an unexploded grenade.
Earlier
reports said that at least 27 people, including one child and four
women, were killed and almost 200 wounded in the attack.
"Until
now we have received 27 bodies most of them with massive injuries to the
head and abdomen," Abdallah Hatem, head of the morgue at the main
Kazimyah hospital, told AFP.
He
said many bodies had been taken directly to the morgue without passing
through the main casualty centre.
There,
emergency services head Dr Ahmed Zia told AFP: "Ten lifeless bodies
have been transported to our facility."
He
said some of the injured had been admitted, but that because of the
sheer numbers other casualties were being sent to other hospitals in the
city.
Ambulances
raced to and from the scene while fire trucks and police were out in
force. Two U.S. helicopters hovered overhead.
At
Karhk hosiptal, where urgent calls were being made for blood donors, a
nurse told AFP that no fewer than 70 people were being treated, some
with serious injuries, while some 18 were accepted at the city medical
centre.
Shocked
women cloaked in black Shiite robes poured out of the mosque, which
police had cordoned off, and witnesses said a crowd had almost lynched
television cameramen at the scene, thinking they had been linked to the
explosions.
More
casualties, who included Iranian as well as Iraqi pilgrims, were being
brought in all the time on stretchers, wrapped in blankets and dripping
blood, in ambulances or private cars, followed by relatives.
