BAGHDAD, June 13 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed and 24 wounded in two car bomb attacks against Shiite pilgrims in Iraq's holy Shiite city of Karbala on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.
The first attack occurred in the town of al-Hindiyah in east of Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad, when a car bomb detonated near procession of Shiite pilgrims, killing three of the them and wounding ten others, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The second attack occurred in central Karbala, when a booby- trapped car went off at a parking lot, wounding 14 people, many of them were Shiite pilgrims, the source said.
Iraqi officials frequently blamed Qaida militant group and some insurgent groups for carrying out attacks against Shiite pilgrims who perform communal rituals, killing and wounding hundreds of them in attempts to provoke sectarian strife in the violence- shattered country.
Karbala attacks came as part of a spate of apparently coordinated bombings across the country ahead of a Shiite religious ritual on Friday as tens of thousands of pilgrims march to Baghdad to commemorate the death of Imam Kadhum, the seventh of the twelve most revered Shiites' Imams, at his shrine in Kadhmiyah district.
Special Report: Situation in Iraq
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