Shiite pilgrims pray in the holy city of Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP)
BAGHDAD, (Reuters) – A roadside bomb in Baghdad killed four people on a passenger bus and wounded 10 others on Monday, Iraqi police said.
The bomb exploded in the northeast of the capital in the sprawling slum of Sadr City, a stronghold of supporters of anti-American Shi’ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The area was relatively empty on Monday as many Iraqi Shi’ites have traveled to the holy city of Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, for one of Shi’ite Islam’s most holy rituals, Arbain.
Arbain marks the end of a mourning period for the death in a seventh century battle of Hussein, the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson.
Police said they did not believe the victims targeted in the bombing were pilgrims returning from Kerbala.
Violence has fallen sharply across Iraq after years of sectarian warfare and resistance to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. But suicide and car bomb attacks remain common.
A slipper lays on the ground as Iraqi soldiers secures the area following a road side bomb which detonated close to a mini bus carrying Shiite Muslims. (AFP)
Iraqi police display a cache of seized mortar rounds and artillery shells at a farm in Mussayab, south of Baghdad, Iraq. (EPA)