3 பெண் சுன்னி தற்கொலை தாக்குதலில் 41 ஷியாக்கள் பலி

கர்பாலா ஷியாமசூதிக்கு எதிராக ஷியாக்களை குறிவைத்து 3 சுன்னி பெண்கள் தற்கொலை குண்டு வெடிப்பு செய்ததில் 41 ஷியாக்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டார்கள். நூற்றுக்கணக்கானவர்கள் படுகாயமடைந்தனர்

Female suicide attack kills 41 near Iraq Shiite shrine
by Abdelamir Hanun
Mon Mar 17, 2:41 PM ET

KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) - A female suicide bomber detonated her explosives-laden vest near a Shiite shrine killing at least 41 people on Monday in the central Iraqi city of Karbala, police and health officials told AFP.


The attack in Karbala came as US Vice President Dick Cheney visited Baghdad on a surprise trip and met several US and Iraqi leaders to discuss improvements in security across the country.

At least 73 people were wounded in the blast which occurred near the revered Imam Hussein shrine, said a medic at Karbala general hosptial.

The bomber was a woman, a local police officer said on condition of anonymity, adding that she blew herself up near the shrine among a crowd of people.

An AFP correspondent at the site said several ambulances and police vehicles ferried victims to hospital following the blast which occurred around 100 metres (yards) from the shrine, located in the centre of the city.

The correspondent said the powerful explosion ripped people apart, sending body parts flying. Many bodies were charred.

Salim Kadhim, spokesman for the Karbala health directorate, said seven Iranian pilgrims were among those wounded in the blast.

Soon after the attack, police in Karbala, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, imposed an indefinite curfew in the central districts of the city.

Insurgents have targeted the Shiite shrine city on a number of occasions in the past five years.

On April 28 last year, a suicide car bomb attack near the Imam Abbas shrine, a second revered shrine in Karbala, killed more than 70 people and wounded nearly 160.

Two weeks earlier, a similar bomb attack close to the Imam Hussein shrine killed 42 people and wounded scores more.

Karbala was also the site of bloody clashes between Shiite militants and police in August that killed more than 50 people dead and injured hundreds.

The Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was blamed for those clashes after which Sadr ordered a freeze on the activities of the militia, which remains in force.

Iraq has been rocked by a series of suicide bomb attacks in recent months, including by females.

The US military says explosive vest has become the weapon of choice for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, with most jihadists nowadays wearing the suicide apparel.

"Late in 2007 there were about eight or 10 (suicide bombings) a month; in the month of February, there were 18. There is an increase," US military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told a news conference on Sunday.

The US military in Iraq had also tracked an increase in requests by Al-Qaeda leaders for foreign fighters to become human bombs, Smith said.

However, he added, measures by countries such as Saudi Arabia and Syria to stop foreign fighters slipping across the border into Iraq has reduced the number of available recruits.