Suicide bombers attacked a Shiite pilgrimage in Baghdad and a Kurdish protest rally in northern Iraq on Monday, killing at least 57 people and injuring some 300, police said.
Three suicide bombers and a roadside bomb struck Shiite pilgrims participating in a massive religious procession in Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 32 people and injuring 102, police said. According to the AP, the attacks occurred in quick succession as tens of thousands of Shiite worshippers streamed toward a shrine in northern Baghdad for an annual event marking the death of an eighth-century saint.
Police said there were indications that the suicide bombers were women. At least two children were among the victims, said police officials.
The attacks took place in the mainly Shiite Karradah district, which is several miles away from the site of the pilgrimage in Kazimiyah, northern Baghdad.
Security forces have deployed about 200 women volunteers this week to search female pilgrims near the Baghdad district of Kazimiyah, where the Shiite saint is buried in a golden domed shrine. On Sunday, at least seven pilgrims died south of Baghdad in an ambush by gunmen near a Sunni town, Madain, south of Baghdad.
Elsewhere, a suicide bomber killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 100 others in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Monday, security officials told AFP. Local police said remains recovered from the scene showed the attacker was a woman. The U.S. military confirmed a suicide bombing. According to AFP,
the suicide bomber targeted Kurdish demonstrators who were protesting a provincial elections law blocked in parliament because of disagreement over a power-sharing formula in the city of Kirkuk.
Also on Monday, a roadside bomb attack on Monday killed four civilians near Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said.
