Deadly Explosion Near An Iraqi Shiite Mosque

In what has actually become quite an usual common thing for Iraq in the last months, another suicide car bomb blasted through in one of the main Iraqi cities, killing and wounding people, while spreading more fear among Iraqi leaders and citizens.

According to Iraqi authorities, the attack occurred at 7.15 a.m., Baghdad time, near the Maitham al-Ramar shrine in the holy Iraqi city of Kufa, causing the death of at least 10 people and injuring 40. The Iraqi government officials rapidly released a statement in which they confirmed the death toll and declared that many of the casualties were actually Iranian pilgrims which had come to pray at the mosque.

Angry Iran condemned the attack and called on the Iraqi government to do all it can to bring those responsible to trial, while accusing the American forces for doing nothing to prevent the tragedy. A radical Shiite religious personality Muqtada al-Sadr also condemned the bombing, declaring that its motive was to ruin the relative stability that currently dominates the Kufa-Najaf region, 100 miles from Baghdad.

Iraqi police authorities that got to the scene of the attack, stated that the suicide attacker was driving a minivan behind two buses that were transporting pilgrims to the mosque, and detonated his explosives while the former were getting off. Following the explosion, both buses were torn apart, while a wall of the mosque, carrying beautiful mosaic tiles was destroyed.

Although no claim has been made for the attack, authorities suspect it was the Ba'ath Party, former powerful Sunni parliamentary organization during Saddam Hussein's regime:" "The purpose is clear - to stop pilgrimage. I suspect that the criminal Baathists are behind this act", Asaad Abu Kallal, governor of Najaf, stated.