Karbala blast casualties up to 64

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The death toll from Thursday’s earlier blast in the holy Shiite city of Karbala rose to eight and the wounded to 56, including 15 in a serious condition, medics said. “The blast left eight people, including three women and one child, killed while the wounded, many of them severely burned, reached 56, including 15 in a serious condition,” a medic told IraqiNews.com news agency. Eyewitnesses near the explosion scene and helped carry the victims said the bombing might have been resulted by a female a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt. “We carried several wounded and dead people including the remains of a woman’s head,” an eyewitness said. Earlier in the day, the Karbala province’s operations chief said five Shiite pilgrims were killed and 30 others wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack. “A home-made explosive charge went off in an alley near Qiblat al-Imam al-Hussein street, killing five pilgrims and wounding 30 others,” Lt. General Othman al-Ghanimi told IraqiNews.com news agency. An official local source had said nearly 125,000 Arab and foreign pilgrims have arrived in Karbala for the Arbaeen pilgrimage, scheduled for Monday. The Arbaeen marks the 40th day after the death of Imam al-Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson and the third holiest figure for Shiite Muslims, in the battle of Taf in Karbala in the Hegira year 61 (680 in the Gregorian calendar). Scores of pilgrims from inside and outside Iraq have started the long trek on foot for the pilgrimage. Tight security measures have been in force and a large number of security personnel have been deployed in Iraq’s holy sites in preparation for the occasion. Karbala, said to be housing the tombs of Imam al-Hussein and his brother Imam al-Abbas, lies 130 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. AmR (S) 1