A wave of attacks against Shia Muslims killed at least 73 people on Thursday, the worst toll in nearly five months, as Iraq grappled with a weeks-long political row that has stoked sectarian tensions.
The violence, which also wounded more than 100, comes two weeks after a crisis erupted when vice-president Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, was charged with running a hit squad soon after US troops pulled out.
Thursday’s attacks, which targeted only Shias, were quickly condemned by parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, as well as by Iraq’s Shia-majority neighbour Iran.
The worst incident saw at least 45 people killed by a suicide attack on the outskirts of the southern city of Nasiriyah as pilgrims were walking to the shrine city of Karbala. Five bomb attacks also struck two Shia neighbourhoods of Baghdad.