Who are these people and what are they doing there in the first place???

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090424/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

Iraqi police: 60 dead in double bombing at shrine

BAGHDAD – Back-to-back suicide bombings killed 60 people Friday outside the most important Shiite shrine in Baghdad, a day after the country was rocked by its most deadly violence in more than a year, police officials said.

The latest bombings come amid an increase in high-profile attacks that have raised concerns about the abilities of Iraq's security forces. Such concern led Iraq's prime minister to order a military task force to investigate the attacks as well as security shortcomings that allowed the assailants to slip through.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but these types of attacks are the trademark of Sunni insurgents backed by al-Qaida in Iraq.

The bombers Friday detonated explosives belts within minutes of each other near separate gates of the tomb of prominent Shiite saint Imam Mousa al-Kazim, located in the northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah, said a police official. Another police official said the bombers struck shortly before the start of Friday prayers as worshippers streamed into the mosque — an important site for Shiite pilgrims.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered a military task force to investigate the bombings and ordered the battalion and company commanders responsible for security in the area to be relieved of duty during the investigation, said military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi.

Al-Moussawi said the men were being suspended for failing to provide adequate security around the shrine.

Among the dead were 25 Iranian pilgrims, said a police and a hospital official. Both said at least 125 people, including 80 Iranian pilgrims, were injured in the blast.
The U.S. military could not provide further details, saying the area around the shrine was patrolled by Iraqi security forces.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Witnesses at the shrine described a bloody, chaotic scene.

"It is just like a massacre took place," said Laith Ali, 35, who owns a shop near the shrine.

The attack left the bodies of the dead — some of them burned — scattered on the ground near the entrance of the shrine, he said.

"Where are the security precautions that the security officials are talking about?" he said.

Many of the wounded were taken to nearby Kazimiyah Teaching Hospital, overwhelming the staff. AP Television News footage showed many of the injured were forced to wait outside, including women and children, before they could be seen by medical officials.

The shrine has been a favored target of insurgents, most recently in early April when a bomb left in a plastic bag near the shrine killed seven people and wounded 23.

In January, a man dressed as a woman blew himself up near the shrine, killing more than three dozen people and wounding more than 70.

Imam Mousa al-Kazim is an eighth century saint and one of 12 Shiite saints. Hundreds of thousands of Shiites march to the shrine in Kazimiyah every year to commemorate his death in A.D. 799. Shiites believe al-Kazim is buried in the Baghdad golden-domed shrine.

Friday's attack came a day after two bombings in separate areas of Iraq killed more than 80 people.

Violence in Iraq is at its lowest levels since the months following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. But the recent attacks in Baghdad and elsewhere have exposed gaps in security as Iraq takes over from U.S. forces in protecting the country.

Funerals began Friday for the 88 people killed in the suicide bombings Thursday in Baghdad and in Diyala province.

Coffins were loaded on trucks near the Baghdad offices of the Iraqi Red Crescent, whose volunteers were distributing food parcels in central Baghdad on Thursday when a suicide bomber killed 31 and wounded at least 50 others.

Also Friday, the U.S. military said an American soldier died as a result of a noncombat related incident in the northern Salahuddin province. At least 4,277 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

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Associated Press Writer Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report

That seriously sucks.

Iraq is a warzone. everyone knows that. When you risk your life to go visit a holy shrine, then you kinda made your choices.

i think its only good, bcuz they are now shahid & they will be rewarded in heaven.

i think its only good, bcuz they are now shahid & they will be rewarded in heaven.

I agree. Khosha be sadateshoon, I am convinced that they will be rewarded in a big way.

Iran condemns U.S. in Iraq, Clinton sees progress

By Arshad Mohammed and Waleed Ibrahim

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States and Iraq on Saturday dismissed fears a rash of bloody bombings could tip Iraq back into all-out sectarian war, while Iran said Washington was to blame for the attacks on Shi'ite Muslims. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Baghdad after bomb blasts that killed 150 people in two days, rejected the charge from Tehran.

The attacks, concentrating on Shi'ite pilgrims in Baghdad and Diyala province, bore frightening echoes of incidents that led to the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07, and fueled fears of a resurgence in fighting just as violence had been dying down. "The reaction from the Iraqi people and leaders was united in rejecting that violence and refusing to allow it to set Iraqi against Iraqi, which was obviously one of its intended goals," Clinton told a news conference.

The attacks targeted in large part Shi'ite Muslims, many of them pilgrims from Iran. In the past, such attacks have brought revenge killings against the once-dominant Sunni minority. Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed Tehran's old foes, the United States and Israel. "The main suspects in this crime and crimes similar to that are American security and military forces," he said in a statement read on state radio on Saturday. He said U.S. forces, on the pretext of fighting terrorism, had occupied an Islamic country and "killed tens of thousands of people there and increased insecurity there day after day."

Clinton said she had not heard the comments. "But I must say it is disappointing for anyone to make such a claim since it is clearly traced to the al Qaeda remnants and other violent groups," she said. Khamenei's criticism could bode poorly for U.S. President Barack Obama's moves to thaw relations between Washington and Iran, at odds over Tehran's nuclear programme.

AIR OF DREAD

An air of dread has spread through Baghdad following the attacks, further eroding a measure of normality and optimism that had swept the city earlier this year. While violence has dropped sharply, major political issues remain unresolved, such as settling control over the disputed city of Kirkuk and passing national oil legislation. Rival political and armed groups jockey for influence, and reconciliation between Sunnis and Shi'ites remains elusive as U.S. combat troops prepare to withdraw from Iraqi cities in June. All U.S. troops are due to pull out by the end of 2011.

"We are doing our utmost ... to ensure there is no vacuum when that happens and that security is viable ... but this ultimately will be an Iraqi responsibility," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said. The attacks do, however, raise doubts about the abilities of Iraqi forces, rebuilt from the ground up after being dissolved by U.S. officials following the 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein. Analysts say violence could spike ahead of national elections due at the end of the year in which the increasingly assertive prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, will face off against fellow Shi'ites, Sunnis and increasingly alienated Kurds. Baghdad's ties with Kurds in their northern region have deteriorated as Maliki seeks to strengthen central power. Officials blame the latest attacks on Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.

Abdul-Karim al-Sammarai, a lawmaker from the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said he did not fear reprisals against Sunnis from angry Shi'ites. "Iraq will never return to that spiral of violence again," he said. Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, head of the parliamentary bloc of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a powerful Shi'ite party, said Shi'ites would not be drawn into broader conflict again. "We will not react to what happened in the same manner. Our choice is to respond to such atrocities by continuing with the political process and supporting the security forces," he said.