By DPA,
Baghdad: At least 36 Shia Muslims were killed in a wave of bombings across Iraq Friday, as sectarian violence in the country continued to escalate.
In the most deadly attack, a man detonated explosives packed into his truck near a Shiite mosque in al-Rashidiya, near the northern city of Mosul.
At least 30 people were killed in that attack and 74 were wounded, police and witnesses said.
Police said the number of confirmed deaths from the attack, which destroyed nearby houses, was likely to rise as bodies were pulled from the rubble.
Some 400 kilometers to the south, three apparently coordinated bomb blasts killed at least six Shia Muslims returning from a pilgrimage in Karbala in three bomb attacks in mostly Shia neighbourhoods of Baghdad.
The first attack left at least three dead and eight others wounded near the Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City, in the east of the capital, police told Baghdad’s Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Soon after, a second blast killed at least two people and wounded 11, and a third blast left at least one dead and five wounded in Baghdad’s al-Habibiya district.
All three blasts targeted buses full of Shia Muslims returning from pilgrimage at the tomb of Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, who was killed in battle in Karbala in the year 680.
Security in Karbala had been tight for the pilgrimage to mark the 15th night of the Muslim month of Shaban.
The attacks on the Shia worshippers came amid increased sectarian violence between Iraq’s Shia and Sunni Muslims.