Suicide bombers kill 36 Shi'ite pilgrims in Iraq: police
Source: Reuters
BAGHDAD Thu Dec 19, 2013 12:05pm EST
(Reuters) - Suicide bombings in Iraq killed at least 36 people on Thursday in attacks targeting Shi'ite pilgrims ahead of a major holy day next week, police said.
Two years after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, violence is at its highest level since 2006-7, when strife between Sunnis and Shi'ites killed tens of thousands of people.
The first major attack of the day came when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a funeral tent, killing at least 16 Shi'ite pilgrims and wounding 31 in southern Baghdad's mainly Sunni neighborhood of Doura, police sources said.
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Another bomber set himself off near Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, amid a group of Shi'ite pilgrims of the ethnic Turkmen group who were coming from Kirkuk in the north, killing nine, medics and security sources said.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/19/us-iraq-violence-idUSBRE9BI0BD20131219