BAGHDAD — Back-to-back explosions tore through tents housing Shiite pilgrims in southern Iraq on Thursday, the deadliest in a wave of bombings that killed at least 43 people nationwide, officials said.
The attacks in Hillah began with a roadside bombing near tents set up for Shiites commemorating the 17th century death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein. That was quickly followed by a car bomb targeting emergency response teams.
The explosions, which occurred in a busy commercial area, killed at least 29 people and wounded as many as 90, a police officer said, making it the deadliest attack in the city this year.
Twisted and charred vehicles were left outside damaged stores as shopkeepers collected their strewn merchandise from the bloodstained pavement. Hillah is 60 miles south of Baghdad.
Just hours earlier, a parked car exploded near the shrine of Imam Hussein in the Shiite city of Karbala, killing six people and wounding 20, another police officer said.
Karbala, 55 miles south of Baghdad, is one of the holiest cities in Shiite Islam and the place where Imam Hussein and his brother, Imam Abbas, are buried. Hundreds of thousands of Shiites flock to their golden-domed shrines every year.
Such religious ceremonies have often been targeted by Sunni insurgents seeking to foment sectarian violence and undermine the Shiite-led government.
A suicide bomber also drove his explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint in the mainly Sunni city of Fallujah, 40 miles west of the capital, killing three policemen and wounding 11 others, a police official in the city said.
And in the northern city of Mosul, a parked car bomb went off as a police patrol passed, killing two people and wounded two, police said. Another police patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in the town of Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding six others.