Insurgents and suicide bombers struck out in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq Saturday leaving at least 50 people dead as Shiite Muslim worshippers around the country commemorated their holiest day of the year. The attacks came one day after at least 36 people mostly Shiites were killed in a string of attacks. Saturday s bombings during the religious festival of Ashoura came despite stepped-up security around the country. Authorities had hoped to prevent a repeat of last year s attacks during Ashoura in which insurgents killed at least 181 people in twin blasts in Karbala and Baghdad. Eight suicide attacks in and around Baghdad alone killed at least 24 people including a U.S. soldier and injured 70 others as Shiite Muslim worshippers around the country commemorated their holiest day of the year. Nearly all of Saturday s attacks inside Baghdad took place in the northern Adhamiya and Kadhimiya districts. The attacks began before noon when a bomber walked into a tent outside a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad and blew himself up killing at least three people and injuring 10 according to police. About 50 people were inside the tent attending a funeral. It was unclear why the attacker blew himself up inside a tent full of Sunnis set up outside the Fatah Pasha mosque but similar structures were set up outside Shiite mosques for the Ashoura celebration. Most attacks by insurgents - who are thought to be predominantly Sunni extremists - are aimed at Shiites. The attacks then shifted to the northern districts where a suicide bomber killed two Iraqi National Guardsmen. Another suicide bomber then blew himself up in a public bus in Kadhimiya and killed one child and six adults. Another 10 people were injured. In other attacks a suicide bomber blew up a car outside an Iraqi National Guard base in Baqouba 60 kilometres 35 miles northeast of Baghdad killing three Iraqi guardsman and wounding another. The suicide bomber also died in the blast. A suicide bomber also blew up his car at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Latifiyah 30 kilometres 20 miles south of the capital killing two Iraqi soldiers according to the Iraqi army. Authorities bracing for violence Saturday stepped up security around the country. In Karbala vehicle traffic - even motorcycles bikes and pushcarts - was prohibited in an attempt to avert bomb attacks. Also on Saturday APTN obtained an insurgent videotape in which a group calling itself Brigades of Islamic Anger claimed responsibility for blowing up two US humvees. APTN could not independently verify the claims. The videotape dated February 17 showed street scenes in Tarmiyah about 40 kilometres 25 miles north of Baghdad. A huge explosion appears to engulf the first humvee. In a statement the group claim to have also directly hit an American humvee also in Tarmiyah near the river. But the fate of the second humvee was unclear as it was out of camera range when the blast occurred. The US military had no immediate comment on

• published: 16 Sep 2013
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