48 people killed, 380 wounded in Baghdad blasts – BOC

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A total of 48 people were killed and 380 were wounded in the blasts that targeted Shiite pilgrims in the past three days, the Baghdad Operations Command (BOC) said on Thursday. “The blasts killed 48 persons and injured 380, including 248 left hospitals after receiving necessary treatment,” the BOC said in a statement posted on its website. “The forces also managed to defuse six bombs which targeted Shiites heading for Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in al-Aamel and al-Bayaa regions and in al-Shabab and al-Madaen neighborhoods and defused two sticky bombs in Shuhadaa Abi Munayser region in Abi Gharieb in Baghdad,” the BOC added. “The forces seized also 32 Katyusha rockets set to target the Shiite visitors in al-Madaen region,” it noted. Tens of thousands of Shiite worshippers streamed into the Iraqi?capital earlier in the day amid heavy security for the pilgrimage, a?day after six people were killed in violence. In April 2009, two female suicide bombers detonated their payloads near the shrine, killing 65 people, including 20 Iranian pilgrims, and wounding 120 others. Shiites throughout Iraq and from the worldwide are heading for the al-Kadhimiya City in Baghdad on the occasion of the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim’s anniversary. Imam Moussa al-Kadhim, (Seventh of Safar, 128 AH- Twenty-fifth of Rajab, 183 AH) (Approximately: October 28, 746 AD-September 1, 799 AD), the seventh of the Twelve Shiite Imams. Imam Kadhim was the son of the sixth Shiite Imam, Ja’far al-Sadiq, and his mother’s name was Hamida Khatoon. He was born during the power struggles between the Umayyad and the Abbasid dynasties. In 795, Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid imprisoned Moussa al-Kadhim. Four years later, he ordered Sindi ibn Shahiq to poison him. He died in a prison in Baghdad in 799 and was buried in Baghdad’s al-Karkh district in an area named after him: al-Kadhimiya. A stampede on Jisr al-Aiema (Bridge of Imams), leading to the tomb of Imam Kadhim in the town in 2005 killed more than 1,000 people and wounded 300 others, also causing part of the bridge to collapse. SH (S)/SR 2