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Blast at Baghdad Mosque, Shiites Mark Ashura
BAGHDAD, February18 , 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Thousands of Shiite Muslims marched through the streets of Baghdad Friday, February18 , to mark Ashura, as a deadly blast at a Shiite mosque in the Iraqi capital reportedly killed 31 and wounded22 .
The large public display came as many other pilgrims descended on Karbala, where Shiites are to commemorate Saturday, February19 , the suffering of Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Al-Hussein, whose7 th century martyrdom in a battle near the city, is remembered at Ashura, one of the most important dates in Shiite religious calendar.
Dressed in black for mourning and holding aloft green banners bearing the name Al-Hussein, the crowds filled a broad central Baghdad street, according to Reuters.
As the crowds of pilgrims moved through Baghdad's streets, some beat themselves with metal chains as is the custom for Ashura.
The ceremony climaxes Saturday, with huge crowds expected to congregate in Karbala and Baghdad.
Hani Fahs, a prominent Lebanese Shiite scholar, said in an IslamOnline.net live dialogue at Ashura last year that Shiites should not go far away to expose their sadness over the martyrdom of Al-Hussein. He further condemned pilgrims beating themselves with chains.
Mosque Attacked
The celebrations came amid tight security measures in Karbala, some 105 kilometers west of Baghdad, where 170 people were killed in suicide bombings on pilgrims at Ashura last year.
Police set checkpoints on all roads leading to Karbala. Vehicles were banned from getting into, and pilgrims came under massive check operations before entering the city.
Ali Al-Mosawi, representative of Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani in Kadhimiya, called on all Iraqis to cooperate with police forces to help them arrest suspected militants who could launch bombing attacks this year.
But despite the tight security measures, at least 31 people were killed and 22 wounded in an attack at a Shiite mosque in southern Baghdad Friday, according to Al-Jazeera, citing police sources.
Reuters initially put the number of killed at 13 and quoted survivors as saying a man wearing a suicide belt blew himself up in the mosque in the Doura district of southwestern Baghdad as worshippers marked Ashura.
According to Reuters, Police initially thought it was an attack by rocket-propelled grenades, but later said it had been a suicide bomb. The US military was not immediately reachable for comment.
The dead and wounded were taken to Yarmouk hospital, one of Baghdad's busiest, where family and friends filled the corridors.
Iraq shut its borders to pilgrims for five days from Thursday, February17 , to bolster security during the festival and to prevent pilgrims flooding into the country from abroad.
Border police said they had detained 255 pilgrims from Iran and Afghanistan in the past two days in eastern Iraq.
Political Overtures
Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the main party in a Shiite alliance that won the Jan.30 election, addressed a crowd of pilgrims Friday, lending a political element to the religious ritual.
“I call on all Iraqis to unite and I assure everyone the Iraq we want is a unified and secure Iraq where every citizen, without exception, enjoys justice and equality,” Hakim told the crowd, which chanted "Hussein, Hussein" and "God is Greatest".
“We want an Iraq where everyone takes part in building it, and we want a system which gives all people their rights. We say it now and we will always say it, that we are open to all Iraqis, because they are partners in this nation.
“It's not the right of one group to monopolize Iraq to the detriment of others,” he said in comments that are one of the strongest declarations yet of Shiite intentions to include Sunnis.
Most Sunnis did not vote in the election, which was won by Shiite candidates.
There was a small presence of Iraqi police near those marching Friday, as well as many members of the Badr Organization, a Shiite militia loyal to SCIRI.
Friday's march also included a funeral procession for three members of the Badr Organization that SCIRI says were killed while in Iraqi police detention earlier this month.
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2005-02/18/article01.shtml
Dressed in black for mourning and holding aloft green banners bearing the name Al-Hussein, the crowds filled a broad central Baghdad street, according to Reuters.
As the crowds of pilgrims moved through Baghdad's streets, some beat themselves with metal chains as is the custom for Ashura.
The ceremony climaxes Saturday, with huge crowds expected to congregate in Karbala and Baghdad.
Hani Fahs, a prominent Lebanese Shiite scholar, said in an IslamOnline.net live dialogue at Ashura last year that Shiites should not go far away to expose their sadness over the martyrdom of Al-Hussein. He further condemned pilgrims beating themselves with chains.
Mosque Attacked
The celebrations came amid tight security measures in Karbala, some 105 kilometers west of Baghdad, where 170 people were killed in suicide bombings on pilgrims at Ashura last year.
Police set checkpoints on all roads leading to Karbala. Vehicles were banned from getting into, and pilgrims came under massive check operations before entering the city.
Ali Al-Mosawi, representative of Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani in Kadhimiya, called on all Iraqis to cooperate with police forces to help them arrest suspected militants who could launch bombing attacks this year.
But despite the tight security measures, at least 31 people were killed and 22 wounded in an attack at a Shiite mosque in southern Baghdad Friday, according to Al-Jazeera, citing police sources.
Reuters initially put the number of killed at 13 and quoted survivors as saying a man wearing a suicide belt blew himself up in the mosque in the Doura district of southwestern Baghdad as worshippers marked Ashura.
According to Reuters, Police initially thought it was an attack by rocket-propelled grenades, but later said it had been a suicide bomb. The US military was not immediately reachable for comment.
The dead and wounded were taken to Yarmouk hospital, one of Baghdad's busiest, where family and friends filled the corridors.
Iraq shut its borders to pilgrims for five days from Thursday, February17 , to bolster security during the festival and to prevent pilgrims flooding into the country from abroad.
Border police said they had detained 255 pilgrims from Iran and Afghanistan in the past two days in eastern Iraq.
Political Overtures
Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the main party in a Shiite alliance that won the Jan.30 election, addressed a crowd of pilgrims Friday, lending a political element to the religious ritual.
“I call on all Iraqis to unite and I assure everyone the Iraq we want is a unified and secure Iraq where every citizen, without exception, enjoys justice and equality,” Hakim told the crowd, which chanted "Hussein, Hussein" and "God is Greatest".
“We want an Iraq where everyone takes part in building it, and we want a system which gives all people their rights. We say it now and we will always say it, that we are open to all Iraqis, because they are partners in this nation.
“It's not the right of one group to monopolize Iraq to the detriment of others,” he said in comments that are one of the strongest declarations yet of Shiite intentions to include Sunnis.
Most Sunnis did not vote in the election, which was won by Shiite candidates.
There was a small presence of Iraqi police near those marching Friday, as well as many members of the Badr Organization, a Shiite militia loyal to SCIRI.
Friday's march also included a funeral procession for three members of the Badr Organization that SCIRI says were killed while in Iraqi police detention earlier this month.
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2005-02/18/article01.shtml
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Suicide bombers struck two Shia mosques during prayer time, killing at least 16 people. A mortar attack killed at least two people near a Shia procession.
Three people were killed in a suicide bomb at an Iraqi police and National Guard checkpoint in a mostly Sunni area of the city.
The attacks came on the eve of Ashura, the holiest day of the Shia calendar.
Iraq's borders have been closed and security tightened for Ashura in an attempt to avoid a repeat of last year's bomb attacks against Shia worshippers in Baghdad and Karbala that killed at least 181 people.
Friday's violence flared a day after Shia parties were confirmed to have won a slim majority in Iraq's new transitional parliament following January's election.
It could take several weeks of negotiations before a government is formed, as the winning Shia United Iraqi Alliance will have to form a coalition to reach the two-thirds majority needed to pass legislation.
Four attacks
The deadliest attack took place at a packed Kazimain mosque in southern Doura district at about 1300 (1000 GMT). At least 15 people were killed and several injured when a suicide bomber mingled with worshippers before detonating his explosives.
"I had just begun Friday prayers when an enormous explosion rocked the building," the mosque's imam, Sheikh Malek Kinani told AFP news agency.
At around the same time, two suicide bombers targeted another Shia mosque in western Baghdad, police said. At least one person was killed.
The bombers were accompanied by gunmen who opened fire on guards. But according to the police, the guards fired back and the bombers detonated their explosives.
"I heard someone coming and then he exploded himself," Abdul Qasim Ubid told Reuters television. "There were legs and hands. It was terrible, terrible."
Hours later, a mortar attack struck a cafe in Baghdad, as an Ashura procession passed by.
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Baghdad says the blast killed the cafe's owner and a relative, and possibly one other person.
Predominantly Sunni Muslim militants have vowed to continue targeting Iraq's Shia majority, which is set to take power for the first time.
Ashura marks the death 1,300 years ago of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, which widened the split between Sunni and Shia Islam.
In other violence, a US soldier was killed and two wounded in a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, the US military said.
It also announced that three US soldiers were killed on Thursday in separate attacks in and around the northern city of Mosul.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4276367.stm
Another three people died in a third attack on a cafe in a predominantly Shia neighbourhood as a procession marking the holy day of Ashoura was passing. There were conflicting reports of what caused the blast, a suicide bomber or a mortar.
The first explosion occurred when a suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives blew himself up near the al-Khadimain mosque in Baghdad's southern Dora neighbourhood. At least 15 people were killed, said police Captain Falah al-Mahdawi, whose station is located near the mosque. Another 20 people were injured.
In the second blast, two suicide bombers attacked the Al Bayaa mosque in a mainly Shia neighbourhood of western Baghdad, Lieutenant Colonel Jalal Sabry of the local police station said.
Security guards fired on the bombers, but one managed to blow himself up. An official at Baghdad's al-Yarmuk hospital said at least 10 people were brought to the facility from the scene of that explosion. Two people are believed to have died.
Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, told CNN he believed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant who is al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, was behind the attacks.
Walid al-Hilly, a leading figure of the Shia-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.
Quick action from a security guard at the Al Bayaa mosque may have 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.
Both blasts came just as prayers were finishing and the faithful were preparing to observe Ashoura on Saturday.
Shias are marking the Islamic holy month of Muharram, and Ashoura 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 Shia Muslim shrines in Baghdad and Karbala, killing at least 181 people.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1417645,00.html