Samarra (Iraq): A suicide bomber blew himself up inside an Iraqi restaurant used by police and anti-Al-Qaeda militiamen today, killing one person and wounding 20 others, police said.
The attack occurred at 6.05 pm local time in Samarra, a
city located 110 kilometres north of Baghdad in Salaheddin
province, a police official said.
The restaurant is a known haunt for police and members of
the Sahwa (Awakening) movement, known as the "Sons of Iraq" by
the US army, which joined American and Iraqi forces in 2006
and 2007 to fight Al-Qaeda and its supporters, leading to a
dramatic fall in violence across the country.
Separately, a grenade thrown at Shiite pilgrims
travelling on foot to the holy southern city of Karbala for a
religious festival, killed one person and wounded four others,
police said.
That attack happened in the southern Baghdad district of
Saidiyah, just days ahead of Arbaeen, which marks 40 days
after the Ashura anniversary that commemorates the killing of
the revered Imam Hussein.
Arbaeen will see tens of thousands of Shiites, including
many Iranian pilgrims, pass through Baghdad en route to
Karbala, to pay homage at the Imam Hussein shrine.
PTI
