Iraq violence: Attack kills dozens of Shia pilgrims



An attack on Shia pilgrims in the Iraqi capital,
Baghdad, has left at least 51 people dead and
more than 100 injured, an interior ministry
official says.
The attack in Adhamiyah district came as pilgrims
walked to a Shia shrine and followed a day of violence
elsewhere.
In the mainly Shia town of Balad a suicide bomber
killed at least 12 people in a cafe, while in Mosul
gunmen shot dead two journalists.
Iraq has seen a sharp rise in sectarian violence in
recent months.
No groups have yet said they carried out Saturday's
attacks, but much of the recent violence has been
carried out by Sunni organisations linked to al-Qaeda.
Local TV
Another bombing in Baghdad on Saturday, in the
neighbourhood of Bayaa, left at least two dead and 10
wounded.
The cafe targeted in Balad, about 80km (50 miles)
north of the Iraqi capital, had also been hit by a suicide
bombing in August, officials said.
Balad is largely Shia but is surrounded by Sunni
communities. More than 20 people were wounded in
Saturday's attack.
The journalists killed in Mosul were filming for the local
TV station al-Sharqiya, which correspondents say has
angered the Shia-led government with its critical
coverage.
In other violence, one person was reported to have
been killed and three injured after a roadside bomb
exploded in Muqdadiyah, north-east of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the defence ministry said security forces
had killed five militants in clashes in Baiji, and two
more in the northern province of Nineveh.
Almost 1,000 people were killed in Iraq during the past
month alone, the UN has said, amid fears of a return to
the sectarian conflict that peaked in 2008.
Violence rose after an army raid on a Sunni Arab anti-
government protest camp in April.

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