| First noted by Ed late yesterday. |
A bomb exploded near the offices of a senior Shia cleric in the Iraqi holy city of Kerbala yesterday, killing eight people and wounding 32, police and doctors said. One of the wounded was Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Al Karbalai, a cleric regarded as close to Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shia leader. Hospital sources said he had been hit in the legs and was receiving treatment. Yesterday's attack came on the day campaigning began for Iraq's first post-Saddam elections. One of the groups contesting the poll is a list of mainly Shi'ite candidates backed by Sistani, but it was not immediately clear if there was any political motive for the bombing.
| "No, no! Certainly not!" Sheesh. Must be a university-trained journalist, no one else could be that obtuse. |
At least four of those killed worked as guards in Karbalai's office, hospital sources said. The wounded were mostly office staff and passers-by. The office is in the centre of Kerbala, close to the shrine of Imam Hussein, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. Sites near Kerbala's shrines were previously attacked in March this year when suicide bombers blew themselves up during an important religious festival, killing more than 70 pilgrims. That attack coincided with a blast at a Shia shrine in Baghdad, which killed more than 50 people. The coordinated blasts were blamed on Jordanian Sunni Muslim militant Abu Musab Al Zarqawi and seen as an attempt to sow sectarian discord.
| Say Mr. Journalist, figure it out yet? |
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