BAGHDAD — A car bomb killed at least 24 people, many of them Shiite pilgrims, and wounded 46 others when it exploded Saturday on a busy road in Baghdad that leads to the revered shrine of Kadhimiya, according to the Ministry of Interior.That bombing, along with several others in recent weeks, was a stark reminder that even as violence has sharply fallen, insurgents still have the power to carry out deadly strikes in the heart of the capital. The attack’s timing and location appeared to be intended to reignite sectarian passions.
Millions of Shiites are preparing to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The observance falls during Muharram, the holiest month of the Shiite religious calendar, which begins Monday. Shiite families from across Iraq traditionally visit the shrine, with its shimmering twin golden domes, on Saturdays.
The explosion occurred at midday about 100 yards from Bab al-Dirwaza, one of the main gates to the shrine and the Kadhimiya districtÂ’s bustling market, which has been a pedestrian-only area for several years because of a spate of deadly attacks in the area. According to several witnesses, the car that exploded was parked outside the fence of one of the nearby parking lots.
On the street in front of the lot, which was cordoned off by American and Iraqi forces, the chassis of a car lay amid the wreckage of a minibus and five other vehicles in one lane. A womanÂ’s shoe and shreds of the black head-to-toe cloak commonly worn by Iraqi women mixed with blood, broken glass and metal. A smashed bus was in the other lane.
Rescuers tried to force open the doors of vehicles to remove the dead and wounded, witnesses said. Many badly burned bodies were simply piled up on wooden market pushcarts.
Muhammad Hamdan, 58, who narrowly escaped the blast, had come to the shrine with his wife and six children to pray to be cured of a heart ailment. “Those who perished are martyrs, God willing,” he said.
Residents and visitors expressed shock and anger that the bombing occurred in what is considered one of the cityÂ’s most secure enclaves. The neighborhood is ringed with Iraqi Army and police checkpoints, where each entering vehicle is scanned with a hand-held bomb detection device. The area receives special attention because it is home to the shrine and the base of Ayatollah Hussein Ismail al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric close to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
The tight security led several residents to lash out at what they assumed to be incompetence or corruption that had allowed the bombing to happen. “This area is highly protected,” Mr. Hussein said. “Not even a rat could come in. The terror is from within.”
A Kadhimiya resident, Fawzia Qazzaz, standing on her porch overlooking the scene, screamed at security personnel as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Either their bomb detection equipment is faulty or they are implicated in the terror,” she said.