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Bomb kills 4, wounds 11 in Baghdad

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-16 20:57

BAGHDAD -- A roadside bomb struck a minibus filled with Shiite pilgrims returning to Baghdad on Monday, killing four people and wounding 11 others in the latest of a series of deadly attacks targeting the pilgrims.

Um Mohammed sits next to her son Mohammed Abd who was wounded in a road side bomb blast in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday February 16, 2009. Four people were killed and 11 wounded in the blast, police said. [Agencies]

The explosion rocked the vehicle as it pulled into a busy square in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad, said the driver, who refused to give his name. He said he was coming from the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the capital.

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The attack, which police and medical officials said killed four people and wounded 11, was the second in Sadr City in two days and followed a series of bombings last week targeting pilgrims on their way to Karbala that killed 60 people and wounded 170.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims converged on Karbala in recent days to celebrate the end of 40 days of mourning that follow the anniversary of the seventh-century death of one of Shiite Islam's most revered saints, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein.

Most of those pilgrims left Karbala on Monday after the end of the religious ceremony and the Iraqi government called on private car owners to help ferry them home.

The Iraqi government deployed more than 30,000 security personnel to protect the pilgrims but the long distances that many Shiites travel to Karbala make it difficult to shield them from all attacks along the way.

Sunni militants have kept up their attacks against Shiites, hoping to re-ignite the kind of sectarian conflict that engulfed the country two years ago.

But the Iraqi government has also stepped up its offensive against extremists throughout the country. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched several operations against Sunni and Shiite militants last year, including one in Sadr City to wrestle control from a militia led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

On Sunday, a bomb hidden in a garbage pile killed one person and injured 18 others in Sadr City.

The government's operations have helped reduce violence in Iraq to a five-year low and propelled al-Maliki's party to victory in provincial elections held throughout much of the country on Jan. 31.