A woman who veiled her explosives in a black robe struck a column of Shiite pilgrims-- Scores Killed in Attack (249 hits)
BAGHDAD — A woman who veiled her explosives in a black robe struck a column of Shiite pilgrims on the outskirts of Baghdad on Monday in a suicide attack that Iraqi officials had predicted but could not stop...
One man who was wounded, Aqil Jassim, spoke of blood “falling like rain.” Another blamed the “blind hatred” of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a domestic insurgent group, for the bombing, but Mr. Jassim also faulted Iraq’s police and army, which once again raised doubts about their tactics, training and professionalism.
The attack — coming a week after four enormous bombings in Baghdad using vehicles driven by suicide bombers — killed at least 38 people and wounded scores more along a major roadway in an industrial district on the northern edge of Baghdad, according to officials.
The bombing occurred despite what officials had pledged would be intensified security for the annual pilgrimage to Shiite Islam’s holiest shrine in Iraq, underscoring the ability of insurgents to outmaneuver the country’s security forces, seemingly at will...
The use of suicide bombers, including women, is not new, but it had diminished recently. Diyala, the province from which many of the pilgrims killed on Monday came, has long been a center of recruiting and training of female bombers.
