As US troops withdrew from the Iraq at least 63 people were killed and several were injured due to car bombs. The violence in Iraq result in the political tensions, which threats to provoke a new round of sectarian violence that once pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war. The pilgrims were headed to the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah to mark the anniversary of the death of a revered Shia saint who is interred there.

Iraq and violence

According to police officers the first bomb struck a procession at around 5am in the town of Taji, north of Baghdad, Iraq and killed seven people and wounding 2. The bomb attack was followed by four more morning blasts that hit other groups of pilgrims across the capital, killing 25 people and wounding more than 70.

In the region of South of Baghdad, Iraq two car bombs exploded minutes apart at dawn in the center of the city of Hillah, killing 21 people and wounding 53. At about 8am near a group of pilgrims in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad, a parked car bomb also exploded, which killed two people and wounding 22.

Terrorists in Iraq

According to police officers two nearly simultaneous car bombs also killed seven pilgrims and wounded 34 in the Shia town of Balad, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Another person was killed in the northern city of Kirkuk when three more bombs exploded, one of them outside the political office of a prominent ethnic Kurdish leader.

The attacks in Iraq target the annual pilgrimage that sees hundreds of thousands of Shias converge on Baghdad on foot to commemorate the 8th century death of revered Imam Moussa al-Kadhim. According to Col. Dhia al-Wakeel, Baghdad, Iraq military command spokesman said that these attacks meant to ignite all-out sectarian bloodshed, however people of Iraq are fully aware of the terrorism agenda.