A roadside bomb went off near a crowd of Shiite pilgrims Sunday in Baghdad, killing two people and injuring 12, police said. The pilgrims struck by the bombing in Baghdad were beginning their trek toward the holy city of Karbala to mark the end of 40 days of mourning following the anniversary of the seventh century death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
South of the capital, gunfire from an American convoy struck another group of pilgrims en route to Karbala from the southern city of Amarah, killing one man and wounding a woman, Iraqi officials said Sunday. According to the AP, the U.S. military said a weapon in a supply convoy accidentally went off but it only had reports of two Iraqis being wounded in the Saturday incident near Diwaniyah. The director of the Diwaniyah health department, Riyadh Abdul-Amir, said the man died of his wounds after being taken with the woman to a local hospital.
Meanwhile, a judicial spokesman said a new trial date has been set for the Iraqi reporter who threw shoes at then-President George W. Bush. The spokesman for the Iraqi Higher Judicial Council Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar conveyed Muntadhar al-Zeidi will face the court on Feb. 19 on a charge of assaulting a foreign leader.
Al-Zeidi has been in custody since the Dec. 14 outburst at Bush's joint news conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Bayrkdar told The Associated Press on Sunday the charge of assaulting a foreign leader will stand.
