At Least 50 Killed in Blasts Targeting Shiite Pilgrims in Iraq

At least 50 people died in a series of blasts in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala today, as suicide bombers targeted Shiite pilgrims in the third attack in recent days.

More than 100 others were injured by the car bombs, and the death toll is expected to rise, police said. The bombs were detonated along the route of the yearly pilgrimage of Shiite Muslims to Karbala for Arbaeen, a religious festival that has been a frequent target of Sunni insurgents attempting to inflame sectarian tensions and undermine the government.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Iraqi officials said the blasts were likely the work of al-Qaida. "The attacks were expected, because this is the biggest annual commemoration, with the highest number of pilgrims," Hussein Sadhan, a member of Karbala's provincial council, told The New York Times. "We are expecting more attacks by al-Qaida because the pilgrims are open and easy to target and while al-Qaida is invisible."

Just hours before the bombs exploded in Karbala, two other suicide blasts hit southern Iraq and Baghdad, killing four people and injuring dozens. Ali Khamas, a Shiite Muslim from Baghdad, said the deadly attacks wouldn't stop him from marching to Karbala, the site of two shrines considered holy to Shiites. "It will not deter us from continuing our march to the holy shrine ... even if the explosions increase," he told The Associated Press.

And in Baquba, three more people, including a female journalist, were killed in a car bomb today. "I heard a massive blast and suddenly, there was a rain of shrapnel falling from the sky," Murtada Aiseh, a government employee, told Agence France-Presse. "I woke up in the hospital and found my wife near my bed; she suffered injuries to her right hand."

Wednesday, suicide bombers targeted the city of Diyala, killing 16 people and wounding 100 more. And Tuesday, a car bomb exploded at a military recruiting center in the northern city of Tikrit, killing 50 and wounding more than 150 people.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are expected to travel to Karbala for the festival in the next week.