More than 100 Killed in an Attack against Shiite Pilgrims in Iraq

Iraqi insurgents murdered about 112 Shiite pilgrims, who were en route to the holy city Karbala, 80 of them were killed after two suicide-bombers blew themselves up on a busy city street. The attack, which took place a bit more than a year after the destruction of the big Shiite mosque in Samara, will apparently increase tensions between the country`s Shiite majority and the Sunni minority, who are already in a state of civil war.

The two bombers blew themselves up in Hillah, South of Baghdad, killing 80 people. Dr Mohammed Timini from the Hillah hospital emergency ward said: "Among the wounded, there are 50 in a critical condition. 80 per cent of the casualties are young men, but there are women and children among the dead." Iraqi combatants also launched attacks in and around Baghdad. The police reported that a car that exploded in the southern Baghdad district of Doura killed 12 people.

9 American soldiers were killed and 4 wounded in 2 separate attacks in Iraq. "Six Task Force Lightning soldiers were attacked while conducting combat operations in Salah ad Din province on March 5," a US military official announced Tuesday. "The soldiers died as a result of injuries sustained following an explosion near their vehicles." In another incident which took place on the same day, 3 American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Diyala, one other was wounded. On the same day insurgents believed to be linked to al-Qaeda stormed a prison in the northern city of Mosul and managed to free 140 prisoners. Most of the prisoners were recaptured soon after, the local police said.

                                 

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