(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - According to the police, at about 1:30 p.m. local time (1030 GMT) on Saturday, at the restaurant where three buses carrying pilgrims were parked on a highway near Balad, north of Baghdad, a police officer said.The attack took place a few days into the holy month of Muharram, which is of special significance to Shia, who are targeted by al Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate and other Saudi, American-Backed insurgents. Police said a parked car blew up near a restaurant on the outskirts of Balad, 80 km north of Baghdad, killing the pilgrims, who were travelling back to the capital from the Shia holy city of Samarra. A further 25 people were wounded in the blast, medics said. Almost one year after the last US troops left Iraq, al Qaeda’s local wing has vowed to revive attacks against the country’s Shias in an attempt to reignite the kind of sectarian violence that drove the country to the edge of civil war four years ago. Attacks against Shias have often increased during Ashura, when Shias commemorate the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)’s grandson Imam Hussain (A.S). Tradition holds that the revered Imam (A.S.) was decapitated and his body mutilated. His body is buried in Karbala, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad. Jawad Abdul Kadhim, the head of the Balad hospital, said the attack killed an Iranian woman and two Iraqi men and wounded 25 people, including Pakistanis. The pilgrims were on their way to visit the Al-Askari shrine in Samarra, which militants bombed in February 2006 sparking a wave of sectarian violence that killed hundreds of people.The attack occurred on the second day of the Islamic lunar month of Muharram, which is the month that Imam Hussein (PBUH) -- the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) -- and his 72 companions were martyred.The ceremonies commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (PBUH) will reach the most important point on the Day of Ashura -- the tenth day of Muharram.Ashura, which falls on November 25 this year, is the anniversary of the day in 680 CE when thousands of forces loyal to the despotic second Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Muawiyah martyred Imam Hussein (PBUH) and his 72 companions in Karbala, Iraq.Hundreds of thousands of people flood Karbala for the Ashura religious rituals every year. /129
