At Least 30 Killed in Baghdad Bombings

An attack targeting Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad killed 23 people and wounded at least 65 on Saturday, officials said.

Accounts differed as to whether the attack in the Adhamiyah area of north Baghdad was a bomb followed by a suicide bombing, or a suicide bombing alone.

The attack came as pilgrims walked to a shrine in Adhamiyah to commemorate the death of Imam Mohammed al-Jawad, the ninth Shiite imam.

Iraq is home to some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, and millions of pilgrims visit the country each year.

But crowds of pilgrims thronging the roads are frequently targeted by Sunni militants including those linked to al-Qaida, who consider Shiites to be apostates.

In another attack, earlier on Saturday a suicide bomber struck a cafe north of Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 35, police and a doctor said.

The same cafe in the town of Balad was attacked by a suicide bomber in August, when 16 people were killed.

Militants have carried out a number of attacks on cafes in Iraq in recent months, and have also targeted other places where crowds gather, including mosques, football fields, funerals and markets.

Violence has reached a level unseen since 2008, and there are fears Iraq may relapse into the kind of intense Sunni-Shiite bloodshed that peaked in 2006-2007 and killed tens of thousands of people.

With the latest violence, more than 70 people have been killed in attacks so far this month, and over 4,750 since the beginning of the year, according to Agence France Presse figures based on security and medical sources.