Female suicide bomber kills 54 pilgrims in Baghdad

Baghdad suffered its third mass-casualty suicide attack in eight days as a suicide bomber killed 54 Iraqis at a checkpoint in the city.

A female suicide bomber detonated her vest in a crowd of women and children in the northern Shia neighborhood of Shaab in Northern Baghdad. The Iraqis were joining a march to the city of Karbala to commemorate the death of Imam Hussein, a revered Shia religious figure.

“The bomber set off the blast as she lined up with other women to be searched by female security guards at a security checkpoint just inside a rest tent,” The Associated Press reported.

Eighteen women and 12 children were among the 54 Iraqis killed in the blast. Another 117 Iraqis were wounded, some seriously. Today’s attack follows three bombings yesterday that targeted Shia worshippers in Baghdad; eight Iraqis were wounded in those three attacks.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the bombings, but the suicide attacks bear the hallmark of an al Qaeda or allied Ansar al Sunnah strike. These two groups have specialized in using female suicide bombers in Baghdad and Diyala province.

Al Qaeda has targeted Shia religious processions over the past three years in an effort to reignite sectarian tensions that nearly led to a civil war in 2006 and 2007.

Today’s suicide attack follows two mass-casualty bombings in Baghdad last week. Thirty-six Iraqis were killed in three suicide attacks that targeted hotels on Jan. 25. The next day, a suicide bomber killed 18 Iraqis in an attack on a police forensics lab in the capital.

The suicide attacks took place after US and Iraqi security forces killed al Qaeda’s top suicide bomber facilitator during a raid in Mosul on Jan. 22. Abu Khalaf, who managed al Qaeda’s facilitation network in Syria, entered Iraq sometime last fall to direct al Qaeda’s suicide bombing campaign.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Tags: Iraq