Yet no one dares address the ideology that inspires such murders. “Bombs in Iraq kill 24, mostly Shiite pilgrims,” by Sameer N. Yacoub for the Associated Press, January 17 (thanks to Kenneth):
BAGHDAD (AP) — Insurgents unleashed a string of bomb attacks mainly targeting Shiite Muslim pilgrims across Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 24 people and extending a wave of deadly bloodshed into a second day.
The violence followed nearly two weeks of relative calm and threatened to fuel rising tension among Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian groups. Shiite pilgrims are a favorite target for Sunni insurgents who seek to undermine the country’s Shiite-led government and provoke sectarian fighting.
The worst attack was near Dujail, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, where a pair of car bombs exploded near pilgrims who were walking to a shrine in the town of Samarra.
The head of the Salahuddin provincial health directorate, Raed Ibrahim, said 11 people were killed and more than 60 were wounded.
“We heard thunderous explosions, and everybody went outside and saw burning cars and several bodies on the ground. Market stalls on both sides of the road were on fire,” said Naseer Hadi, who works in the Dujail post office.
The pilgrims were heading to Samarra to commemorate the death of two prominent Shiite Imams who are buried there in the al-Askari shrine. Associated Press video showed a damaged Shiite mosque and shattered shop windows….