Where’s the brotherly unity?
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four explosions aimed at Shiite worshippers ripped through Baghdad during Friday prayers and killed at least 29 people and injured dozens, officials said, in the deadliest attacks since the election on the eve of Shiite Islam’s most important holiday.
The explosions Friday 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.
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 killedand 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.
Call for unity
There were no immediate claims of responsibility, but Walid Al-Hilly, a leading figure of the Shiite-led Dawa Party, told Al-Jazeera television that the 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.
Ahead of Saturday’s Ashoura celebrations, Iraq partially sealed its land borders as part of stepped up security. Iraq’s fledgling government had hoped to avert the bloodshed that marred Ashoura last year.
