At least two suicide attackers killed 60 or more people Friday near a Shiite shrine in Baghdad, according to an official with Iraq’s Interior Ministry.
At least 80 others were wounded when the bombers struck the Kadhimiya neighborhood on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, near the shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim. It is one of the holiest in the Shia sect of Islam. It comes after the deadliest day in Iraq this year. Most of Thursday’s 87 killings happened when suicide bombers killed at least 55 people in Diyala province and at least 28 people in Baghdad. Friday’s bombings were the third attack on the Kadhimiya neighborhood this month. Many of the dead in the Diyala attack were Shiite pilgrims from Iran. In central Baghdad, a female suicide bomber struck as national police were helping distribute Red Crescent aid to displaced families in the Karrada district. Also Thursday, gunmen shot and killed a police officer outside his home in the northern city of Kirkuk, security officials said. And Thursday evening, the leader of a Sons of Iraq group, also known as Awakening Councils, was killed along with two other members of the group in a bombing northeast of Baquba.
The Baghdad Operations Command said Omar al-Baghdadi, head of an al Qaeda-linked umbrella group, was seized in Baghdad during a major military operation. The U.S. military has not yet confirmed the development. Two years ago, erroneous reports said that al-Baghdadi had been captured and killed.
