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Two killed in bombing against Shiite worshippers
Two men were killed and 24 people, including women and children, were wounded in a bomb attack against a mourning ceremony in Baghdad.
Two men were killed and 24 people, including women and children, were wounded in a bomb attack against a mourning ceremony in Baghdad on Wednesday as Shiite worshippers participated in Ashura rituals.
The bomb exploded in the eastern Baghdad neighbourhood of Mashtal, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Among the wounded were four women and five children.
The 10-day Ashura rituals commemorate the killing of Shiite Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680. Ashura, which means tenth in Arabic, falls on the tenth day of the Muslim month of Muharram.
The festival's climax this year falls on December 27. Tradition holds that Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, was decapitated and his body mutilated by Yazid's armies.
