Ashura massacre
The Aschuramassaker on 2 March 2004 in Karbala and Baghdad was a series of bomb explosions , mortar -, grenades and - missile attacks , at least 178 Shiite Muslims killed and at least 500 injured. The victims were pilgrims who had gone to the Ashura memorial events in Karbala and the Baghdad district of al-Kazimiyya . In no other event after the end of the war in 2003 had more people been killed in Iraq.
backgrounds
After the fall of Saddam Hussein , the Iraqi Sunnis found themselves on the defensive. The Shiites form the majority in Iraq compared to the Sunnis (including Arabs and Kurds ) and would have benefited from the introduction of majority voting. Shiite clergy suspected the motive behind the attack to plunge Iraq into a civil war between the various religious groups.
The attacks
Nine explosive devices were detonated in Karbala , while mortar and rocket attacks were launched. Over a hundred people died. An explosion near the Al-Kadhimiya mosque in Baghdad killed another 58. The attack also involved armed terrorists, car bombs and up to twelve suicide bombers. There was also an attempt by some terrorists to get to Basra in a truck loaded with explosives , but it was stopped. The terrorists were armed with firearms and small rocket launchers and planned to murder the injured or refugees.
Al-Qaeda , which regards the Shiites as heretics, was suspected to be the mastermind behind the attack. The American Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt blamed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for the attacks immediately after the attacks , but it later emerged that Abu Abdallah al Hassan Ben Mahmoud was responsible for them. The influential Shiite Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani accused the US troops of allowing the attacks to happen.
Web links
- THE ASHOURA ATTACKS ( Memento from March 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Thousands mourn for Shiite bombing victims
- Possible Suspects and Motives for the Suicide Bombings In Iraq