Two people killed in Baghdad violence

Two people were killed and four others injured in three bomb attacks on Wednesday in Baghdad, where security has been tightened ahead of a major Shiite ritual, an Interior Ministry source said.

Major Abdul-Rahman Sabieh, an Interior Ministry officer, was killed when a magnetic bomb detonated in his car while driving in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In separate incident, a roadside bomb went off in front of a policeman house in Abu Ghraib area, just west of Baghdad, killing a woman and wounding another from his family, the source said.

Meanwhile, three Iraqi Army soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle near the Nafaq al-Shurta area, in the Jamia district in western Baghdad, the source added.

The attacks came a day after a series of mortar and bomb attacks that killed up to six Shiite pilgrims and wounded some 40 others as thousands of them were travelling on foot across Baghdad streets heading to a holy shrine in Kadhmiyah to observe the major Shiite ritual whose climax will be on Thursday.

Late on Tuesday night, police reports put the toll at three Shiite pilgrims killed and 27 others wounded.

"Another mortar barrage and two bomb explosions ripped through the pilgrims in Baghdad late last night bringing the toll to six killed and 40 injured," the source said.

About one million pilgrims from many parts of Baghdad and other provinces are expected to gather near the Imam Mussa al-Kadhim shrine in Baghdad's northern district of Kadhmiyah for the annual commemoration of the death of the seventh of the most sacred 12 Shiite Imams.

Source: Xinhua