Muslim Holy Days
When there are no Jews nearby, a Shi’ite will do in a pinch: At Least 38 Dead in Attacks on Pakistan Shi’ites.
QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Suspected Sunni Muslim radicals attacked rival Shi’ites with automatic rifles and grenades in southwestern Pakistan Tuesday, killing at least 37 people as the minority sect marked one of its holiest days.
Hospital sources more than 150 people were wounded in the suicide attacks in the city of Quetta, which came as at least 143 people were killed in bomb blasts in Iraq’s holy Shi’ite city of Kerbala and in Baghdad.
Quetta’s military hospital had 18 dead and at least 115 wounded, 30 of them in serious condition, a doctor there said.
A doctor at the Civil Hospital said 19 people, including two attackers, were brought dead there and there were 41 wounded, five of them seriously.
“Most of the casualties were from gunfire, explosions and stampede,” he said.
The attacks in both Pakistan and Iraq came as Shi’ites held processions to commemorate the martyrdom of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad and one of the most important figures in Shi’ite history.
In a separate incident in Pakistan, a provincial leader of an outlawed Shi’ite group was gunned down and more than 30 Shi’ites were wounded in a clash with majority Sunnis, police said.
Blasts Kill 143 at Iraq Shiite Shrines.
KARBALA, Iraq - Simultaneous explosions ripped through crowds of worshippers Tuesday at Shiite Muslim shrines in Baghdad and the city of Karbala, killing at least 143 people on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar, a U.S. official said. It was the bloodiest day since the end of major fighting.
The attacks, a combination of suicide bombers and planted explosives, came during the Shiite festival of Ashoura and coincided with a shooting attack on Shiite worshippers in Quetta, Pakistan that killed at least 29 people and wounded more than 150.
Just another day of blood and horror for the Religion of Peace™.