[Al Ahram] Bombs targeting Shiite Mohammedans in areas south of Storied Baghdad...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
on Thursday killed 31 people and maimed 98, security and medical officials said.
The attacks marked the second wave of bombings against Shiites this week after three car booms went
kaboom!near their places of worship in Storied Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 12 people and wounding 50.
In Thursday's attacks, two roadside kabooms targeting a group of Shiite pilgrims in the city of Hilla killed 26 people and maimed 85, police and medical sources said.
The dead included two women, three children, two medics and a civil defence member, they said.
Iraqi security forces cordoned off the area of the blasts and set up checkpoints in the city to search cars, an AFP correspondent said, adding that shops near the site were shuttered after the attack.
In the shrine city of Karbala, a car boom went
kaboom!under a bridge, killing five people and wounding 13, a police front man and a medical official said.
The front man said that security forces closed off all roads leading to the old city, where Imam Hussein, one of the most revered figures in Shiite Islam, is buried, and were searching for a second car boom.