A roadside bomb ripped through a Shiite procession commemorating the Ashura festival in west Baghdad on Tuesday, killing three worshippers, an interior ministry official said.
The attack, which struck at around 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) in the mostly Shiite neighbourhood of Ghazaliyah, wounded 18 people, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Another roadside bomb wounded 14 Shiites in the town of Khalis, in Diyala province, 65 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, the official added.
The violence came a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up at another procession in the town of Baladruz, in Diyala, killing four Shiites and wounding 17.
Since the US-led invasion of 2003, Sunni Arab insurgents have repeatedly targeted Shiite commemorations for Ashura, which marks the slaying of the revered Imam Hussein by the armies of the caliph Yazid in 680.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
