Eight explosions, including at least four suicide bombing attacks, killed at least 50 people, including a US soldier, Saturday as Shiite worshippers across Iraq marked the holiest day of the year. The attacks came one day after a wave of bombings killed at least 36 people.
Saturday's attacks, during the Ashoura, came despite intensified security steps around the country.
At least four blasts were suicide bombings, while the fifth took place inside a bus in Baghdad, killing at least 19. The bus was stopped in the northern Kadhimiya neighborhood, The AP reported.
The string of blasts started Saturday when a suicide bomber walked into a tent outside a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad and blew himself up, killing at least three people and injuring 10, police captain Hussain al-Ani said. About 50 people were inside the tent attending a funeral. The attack took place outside the Fatah Pasha mosque.
Another suicide bomber who tried to kill a group of Iraqi National Guardsmen near a northwest Baghdad mosque detonated prematurely and killed only himself.
A third suicide bomber blew up a car outside an Iraqi National Guard base in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, killing one guardsman and wounding another, police Col. Muthafar Shahab said.
A fourth suicide bomber blew up his car at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Latifiya, some 32 kms south of the capital, killing two Iraqi soldiers, an army officer said.
Police officer Rashid Haroun said another bomber blew himself up close to the Nada Mosque in Kadhimiya, killing seven Shiites, including three National Guardsmen, and injuring 55 people.
Another two other suicide bombers died in the Kadhimiya area, one who blew himself up in the Judges Institute - an academic institution - but killed no one else, and another apparently shot dead by U.S. troops, police Capt. Hazim Ibrahim said.
A U.S. soldier was killed Friday on patrol in northern Iraq and a second was killed in the south, the military said. Three other American soldiers were killed in separate attacks in the country's north Wednesday and Thursday.
