Several martyred, hurt in Karbala Shrine blast; toll rising

By: Ismail Zabeeh

HOLY CITY OF KARBALA, Iraq: A powerful bomb exploded at a gate leading to the shrine of Imam Hussein (p), the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (p), in Holy Karbala on Wednesday leaving at least nine people martyred and more than three-dozen wounded raising the casualty toll sharply and casting the shadow of violence over the first official day of campaigning in the country's crucial January elections.

According to director of Al-Hussein hospital in the city Dr. Abdul-Abbas Al-Timimi the bomb went off at 5:30 pm at the holy shrine's western gate.

In March, Holy Karbala was rocked by a series of explosions which martyred at least 181 Husseini mourners that were gathered there from across the world to observe Ashoura, the darkest day of human history when Imam Hussein (p) was martyred some 1400 years ago.

The attack in Karbala, which wounded Sheikh Abdol Mahdi Al-Karbalayi, the local representative of Marjaiyah Diniyah Ayatullah Sayyed Ali As-Sistani, came hours after the campaign kicked off, with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi announcing his candidacy and the defense minister accusing Iranian and Syrian intelligence agents of cooperating with former Saddam security operatives and Iraq's top terror figure — Abu Musab Az-Zarqawi — “to run criminal operations in Iraq.”

Also on Wednesday, a Western official in Baghdad said Saddam's notorious right-hand man, Ali Hassan Al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” would be among the first to appear in court next week to face charges for crimes allegedly committed during Saddam's 35-year dictatorship.

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