By Xinhua,
Baghdad : The death toll from three suicide bomb attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims in central Baghdad on Monday, rose to 19 and up to 43 others wounded, an Interior Ministry source said.
“Our latest reports said that 19 pilgrims were killed and some 43 others were wounded by the triple bomb attacks conducted by women suicide bombers,” the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
A female suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew herself up among a group of pilgrims near the National Theater in Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada, the source said.
A second woman suicide bomber struck another crowd of pilgrims near the Kahramana Square in Karrada, while a third woman suicide bomber hit another group of pilgrims near the Musa Bin Nasir fuel station in the same neighborhood, the source added.
Earlier, the source put the toll at nine killed and 30 others wounded.
On Sunday, police said that gunmen opened fire on Shiite pilgrims, who were traveling on foot in the town of Madain, some 30 km south of Baghdad, killing seven of them.
Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims converge every year from Iraqi cities and Shiite Muslim countries, particularly Iran, at the mausoleum of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, to commemorate the death of the seventh of the twelve Shiite Imams.
Kadhim’s tomb is in a golden-domed mosque in the center of the old part of the Kadhimiya district.