BAGHDAD, Iraq — Encouraged by a recent lull in violence in the capital, Karim Sami brought his wife and 18-month-old son to one of Baghdad’s most revered shrines Sunday for prayers marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
After paying their respects at the shrine of Moussa Kadhim, an eighth-century Shiite Muslim imam, the young family enjoyed some snacks in the courtyard before joining the throngs browsing for new holiday outfits among the clothing stalls outside.
“We were on our way out of the area and driving as usual when suddenly there was this big fireball on the opposite side of the road,” said the day laborer, reached at home by telephone. “My wife and child started to cry.”
Police said a car bomb ripped through passing vehicles, including a minibus carrying worshipers to the shrine, killing at least 10 people and injuring 18. At least two women and two children younger then 14 were among the dead, a hospital official said.
“It is very sad that the criminals responsible for such attacks would choose such a holy day and place,” Sami said. “It is as if they don’t want any happiness for the Iraqi people; they just want us to suffer.”
The shrine in Baghdad’s northern Kadhimiya neighborhood has been a frequent target of Sunni militants in the city’s sectarian warfare. After the blast, police closed the area to vehicular traffic until further notice.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday, one in a roadside bombing in Baghdad and the other in a noncombat incident in Nineveh province, the military said.
At least 3,828 U.S. service members have been reported killed since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to a count by the Associated Press.
An Iraqi journalist, Salih Saif Aldin, 32, who wrote under the name Salih Dehema was shot while on assignment for The Washington Post elsewhere in the capital.
U.S. military officials had reported an increase in attacks after the Sunni militant group al-Qaida in Iraq declared a new offensive last month at the start of Ramadan, but they said the level of violence remained significantly lower than at the same time last year.
The number of attacks has tapered off since Friday, when Sunnis began the three-day Eid al-Fitr festivities marking the end of the holy month. Shiites started celebrating Saturday, but bombings and assassinations marred the festivities in some areas.
Police said Sunday that at least 18 people were killed and 27 injured when a suicide truck bomber attacked a police station in Samarra and gunmen opened fire late Saturday. The two sides clashed until U.S. helicopters arrived and the gunmen fled, police said.
In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen ambushed the vehicle of two Catholic priests on their way to a funeral Saturday and dragged them away, police said. Pope Benedict XVI made an appeal for their release during his traditional Sunday blessing at St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
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