World

Shiites Attacked On Holy Day Eve

February 18, 2005 / 2:24 PM EST / CBS/AP

A series of bombs ripped through Iraq on Friday, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens, officials said. The attacks came on the eve of Shiite Islam's most important holiday.

The most recent bombing occurred outside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, Friday evening, killing seven people and wounding 10, doctors said.

Four other explosions took place across Baghdad, mostly in Shiite neighborhoods. Suicide bombers struck at two Shiite mosques after Friday prayers ended, another explosion took place near a Shiite religious procession and a third suicide bomber detonated himself at an Iraqi police and National Guard checkpoint in a Sunni neighborhood.

The first blast occurred in Baghdad's southern Dora neighborhood near the al-Khadimain mosque and killed at least 15, Police Capt. Falah al-Mahdawi said. Another 20 were injured in the first blast. His police station is located near the mosque.

A second blast caused by a suicide bomber occurred outside the Al Bayaa mosque in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of western Baghdad, Lt. Col. Jalal Sabry of the local police station said. An official at Baghdad's al Yarmuk hospital said at least 10 were brought to the facility from the scene of that explosion.

According to police 1st Lt. Waed Hussein, two people were killed and five were injured in a third explosion near an Ashoura procession in the Shiite Ash Shulah district northwest of the city center. Ashoura, which is observed Saturday, is the holiest day on the Shiite calendar.

The fourth attack on the checkpoint was in northern Baghdad neighborhood of al-Adamiyah. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw one dead police officer and two wounded civilians.

In other developments:

Two Indonesian journalists last seen stopped by unidentified men in military uniforms in the turbulent Iraqi city of Ramadi are missing, the country's Foreign Ministry said Friday, stopping short of saying they'd been abducted by insurgents. Al-Arabiya television reported that the pair, missing since Tuesday, had been kidnapped.

U.S. troops in Iraq have suffered a rash of fatal vehicle accidents and other non-combat deaths in recent weeks, even as the number killed in insurgent attacks has declined. Although details of recent accidents have not been made public, some officials believe the jump in their number can be explained in part by turbulence from the troop rotation that is now approaching its peak, with tens of thousands of troops arriving and like numbers going home.

In Karbala, where Ashoura celebrations will be centered, police found the bodies of two police officers, both the sons of the chief of police of Najaf, another southern Shiite city, said Karbala police spokesman Rahman Mushawi. It was not clear who killed the two men. Their father, Ghalib al-Jazaeni, said they had been kidnapped overnight as they drove from Najaf to Karbala for the celebrations. Their hands were bound and they had been shot many times in the head.

Despite intensified security in Baghdad, gunmen kidnapped Sabir Sharaf Al-Qaisym, a member of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party, from outside his house late Thursday in western Baghdad's Ummal neighborhood, police Captain Talib Thamir said.

In northern Iraq, brief clashes broke out between U.S. troops and gunmen in Tal Afar, leaving one woman dead and six others wounded, hospital officials said on condition of anonymity.

Assailants fired six mortar rounds at the governor's office in Mosul. The shells exploded nearby. There was no immediate word on casualties.

In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, coalition forces said two insurgents were killed and another was wounded trying to plant a roadside bomb. The injured man was arrested and taken to a military hospital.

Shiites now hold political power in Iraq, having won most of the seats in the new National Assembly. And while Shiite religious leaders have so far indicated they're willing to reach out to Sunnis, Friday's violence may only complicate the effort at unity, reports CBS News Correspondent Cami McCormick.

Walid Al-Hilly, a leading figure of the Shiite-led Dawa Party, told Al-Jazeera television that Friday's attacks were designed to provoke a sectarian civil war.

"They kill unarmed men, women and children who want to glorify the ceremonies of Ashoura. These terrorist actions will not intimidate us nor make us change the way that we choose freedom from tyranny and oppression," he said. "We chose the path of brotherhood, cooperation and unity between Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Shabak, Turkomen and Christians and all other sects."

In a statement circulated at the mosque before the explosion, the anti-occupation Association of Muslim Scholars said the Sunni group denounced "any action that can provoke sectarian divisions or assaults or threats of displacement or any other actions."

"We call upon everybody to be calm and wise and to avoid sectarian conflicts," it added.

Quick action from a security guard at the Al Bayaa mosque probably prevented more bloodshed.

"I saw this terrorist and I saw him as he was heading toward the mosque. He was trying to get two grenades from his pocket. At that time I opened fire on him and immediately he exploded," Amer Mayah, 24, said.

The U.S. military praised Iraqi guards for stopping two suicide bombers before they made it inside the Al Bayaa mosque. The statement also noted that the suicide bomber in the second attack did not make it into that mosque either.

In a press release, the military said there may be as many as 60 slain in the attacks.

Shiites are marking the Islamic holy month of Muharram and Ashoura, the 10th day of Muharram, is the holiest day of the year for them. The day marks the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, in a 7th century battle for leadership of the Islamic world.

Last year during Ashoura twin blasts ripped through crowds of worshippers at Shiite Muslim shrines in Baghdad and Karbala, killing at least 181 people.

The deadly explosions came as Iraq partially sealed its land borders as part of stepped up security on the eve of Ashoura. Iraq's fledgling government had hoped to avert the bloodshed that marred Ashoura last year.