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More than 50 killed in attacks across Baghdad
Militants struck across the Iraqi capital Wednesday, killing more than 50 people, including 32 in a suicide bombing that targeted pilgrims commemorating a revered Shiite saint, Iraqi police said.
The attacks–the deadliest of which occurred in northern Baghdad's predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah–offered a clear indication of the push by insurgents to exploit Iraq's political vacuum and destabilize the country as U.S. troops head home.
Police said the bloody suicide bombing that killed 32 and wounded more than 90 people, split the hot Wednesday evening air as Shiite pilgrims were about to cross a bridge leading to the a shrine in the Shiite Kazimiyah neighborhood where a revered imam is buried.
A 30-year-old Sunni resident of Azamiyah said he was drinking tea and watching pilgrims walk by when he and his friends heard the blast.
"We heard a big explosion and everybody rushed to the site to see bodies and hear wounded people, screaming for help," Saif al-Azami told The Associated Press.