A Turn for the Worse

Bombers in Iraq, Pakistan Kill 184 People on Holy Day, Hurt 590:

Shiite Muslims were attacked by bombers in Iraq and
Pakistan on a holy day, killing at least 184 people and wounding about
590. U.S. authorities in Iraq said a man they have described as an
al-Qaeda associate, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, may be behind the Iraqi
attacks. Iraqis marking the observance of Ashura were targeted in
almost simultaneous attacks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and the
venerated Shiite city of Karbala about 60 miles south. At least 58
people were killed and 200 wounded in Baghdad and 85 people killed and
230 wounded in Karbala, U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said
in Baghdad. ``This was a clear and tragically well-organized act of
terrorism,'' Dan Senor, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq,
said in Baghdad as he answered questions alongside Kimmitt. At least 41
Shiites were killed and more than 160 wounded in a bomb blast and gun
assault near the city of Quetta, Pakistan, according to tallies from
two hospitals. City officials imposed a curfew as the assailants were
sought. The Iraq attacks, one of the largest single-day death tolls
since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April, came as the U.S.
works toward the transfer of political sovereignty to an Iraqi body by
the end of June. The U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council concluded
negotiations on an interim Iraqi constitution yesterday.

A photograph shot about an hour before a bomb attack shows a procession of participants in the holy Shiite festival of Ashoura walking on the same street that later would be the scene of carnage, in the holy city of Karbala

Posted by flow Frazao on March 2, 2004 at 12:49 PM | Permalink