Baghdad, Iraq – Violence flared Tuesday across central Iraq when two bombs exploding in quick succession killed at least seven Iraqis in a downtown market and gunmen in the city of Fallujah assassinated the head of the city council.
A representative of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric, also was shot dead Tuesday in western Baghdad.
The violence appears to be tied to the Shiite holiday of Ashoura, the commemoration of the seventh-century martyrdom of the Shiite saint Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and a leading imam of the Shiite faith. The event, which marks the schism between Sunni and Shiite sects, culminates Thursday.
Suicide bombers in Baghdad killed at least 180 civilians during Ashoura festivities in 2004 and more than 50 in 2005.
Interior Ministry officials have said they will tighten security around Karbala, where Hussein is buried and the Ashoura ceremonies conclude.
Insurgents from Iraq’s minority Sunni sect, to which deposed dictator Saddam Hussein belonged, have been fighting the new Shiite-led government.
The two deadly bombs in central Baghdad exploded near stalls selling CDs and showing films of Ashoura festivities, witnesses said. The second explosion erupted about 10 minutes after police had arrived. Blood and broken glass littered the streets near the blasts, which injured nearly 30.
Violence also erupted in western Iraq, where four U.S. Marines have been killed in two separate roadside bomb attacks over the last few days.
In Fallujah on Tuesday, angry mourners gathered to bury Sheikh Kamal Nazal, who headed the city council and was slain by gunmen earlier in the day. Some Fallujahns blamed U.S.-backed forces for the killing, while others blamed a puritan branch of Sunni Islam. Nazal drew the ire of some Sunnis for his overtures to the new Iraqi government and U.S. ambassador.
