BAGHDAD, 7 March 2007 — Two suicide bombers blew themselves up yesterday in a crowd of Shiites streaming toward Kerbala, killing up to 118 people, police said.
The coordinated attack happened on a main street in Hillah, about 95 km south of Baghdad, said Capt. Muthana Khalid. More than 150 others were wounded in the blasts, he said.
An Associated Press cameraman at the scene said the bombers struck a crowd of people filing into a pedestrian area. Ambulances and Iraqi police were swarming the area and there was no immediate sign of US forces.
It was one of several shootings and bombings across central Iraq yesterday targeting the Shiite faithful on their way to Kerbala ahead of a religious observance.
The attacks came a day after nine US soldiers died in the deadliest day for Americans in Iraq in nearly a month. Six soldiers died when a bomb exploded Monday near their vehicles during a combat operation in Salahuddin province, the military said. Three others were wounded in the blast. Another three soldiers died the same day in a roadside bomb attack in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen stormed a jail in northern Iraq yesterday and freed at least 140 prisoners, the chairman of the area’s provincial security committee said.
Hisham Al-Hamadani of Nineveh province’s security council said fighters loyal to Al-Qaeda kingpin Omar Al-Baghdadi masterminded the jailbreak.
Foreign Arab extremist fighters were among the prisoners freed in the attack on Badush prison, an Iraqi government facility outside the city, he added.
