(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - On Friday, two cars blocked a bus carrying pilgrims from Baghdad to a key Shi'ite shrine in the northern city of Samarra. Some seven gunmen opened fire, martyring five and wounding six of them in the attack at around 5 a.m. (10 p.m EDT on Thursday) near Tarmiya, 25 km (15 miles) north of the capital, a local police source said.
The bombing of the golden-domed of Imam Hadi and Imam Askari shrine in Samarra in 2006 was a catalyst in igniting two years of sectarian violence in Iraq.
A second incident occurred at 7.30 a.m. in the southern outskirts of Baghdad when gunmen martyred two Shi'ite pilgrims on route to the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala in Iraq's south. Six others were wounded, police and hospital sources said.
On Wednesday, militants targeting Shi'ite families in Baquba martyred five people in bombings that occurred after leaflets were distributed telling Shi'ites to leave the neighborhood or be killed.
Iraq's coalition government is a delicate mix of Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds and was formed under a fragile power-sharing agreement after an inconclusive election in 2010.
/smh
