At least 50 people died in a spate of explosions across Iraq on Thursday, including 45 in twin suicide car bombs that rocked the holy city of Karbala, the third major attack in as many days. The attacks mostly targeted pilgrims marking the Shia Muslim mourning day of Arbaeen, and were the latest in a series of bombings that have shattered a relative calm in Iraq following the formation of a new government last month.
In Karbala, two suicide bombers detonated vehicles packed with explosives 20 minutes apart, the head of Karbala provincial council Mohammed Hamid al-Mussawi said. The first attack struck at Karbala's northern outskirts at around 3:00 pm (1200 GMT), Mussawi said, with the second explosion occurring at around 3:20 pm some 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of the city.
Earlier on Thursday, a roadside bomb detonated among a crowd of Shia pilgrims at the Al-Rasheed vegetable market in southern Baghdad, killing one and wounding nine, while another such blast in a central Iraqi town killed one and injured three, an interior ministry official said. Also on Thursday, a suicide bomber blew up an explosives-filled car at a police headquarters in the central city of Baquba, killing two policemen and a female journalist in the third attack on Iraqi security forces in three days. The suicide bomber detonated his payload at around 10:00 am (0700 GMT), just 200 metres (yards) from the site of a large suicide car bomb against another security agency Wednesday morning.
Thursday's violence comes a day after attacks in Diyala killed 16 people, including 14 from a suicide attack at the offices of the agency responsible for securing government buildings.
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