BAGHDAD, 21 August 2006 — Extremists killed 20 Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad yesterday as around one million people gathered for a religious festival.
Some 300 people were also wounded, Iraqi Health Minister Ali Al-Shemari said, as pilgrims on their way to the complex of Imam Musa Kadhim in the north of the Iraqi capital were fired upon in several districts.
In the southern Zafaraniya district of Baghdad police shot dead two suspected terrorists, a police statement said. Five suspects were also arrested on suspicion of planning attacks against Shiite pilgrims.
Last year around 1,000 Shiites died during the festival following a stampede on a bridge, triggered by rumors that a suicide bomber was on the bridge. A ban on cars has been in place in Baghdad since Saturday afternoon to prevent car bomb attacks.
A raid by US and Iraqi security forces in the so-called Sunni triangle south of Baghdad triggered firefights with insurgents yesterday. According to the police, two Iraqi police and six suspected insurgents were killed. Another 38 suspects were arrested.
In the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, youths, intellectuals and attorneys protested the arrest of dozens of demonstrators over the past days.
The protesters called for the release of the detainees who arrested while condemning the lack of state services. Prevented by police from approaching the Kurdish parliament in Irbil, yesterday’s student protesters called for the right of freedom of opinion.
The protesting attorneys demonstrated in the judicial building in Suleimaniya.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s ousted leader Saddam Hussein will return to the dock today to face genocide charges in a highly-charged case that has revived bitter memories among the country’s Kurdish minority.
The imprisoned strongman has been exercising and eating well in preparation for his appointment with the Iraqi High Tribunal, according to US officials, but he is not alone in awaiting the day with keen anticipation.
