BAGHDAD — A double car bombing and a shooting killed 34 Shiite Muslims on pilgrimage in Iraq on Monday, the deadliest in a wave of attacks across the country that left at least 70 dead.
It was the bloodiest day of violence in nearly two months.
Police said the worst attack took place Monday night in the southern Baghdad suburb of al-Rasheed, when two car bombs struck Shiite pilgrims walking to the holy city of Karbala, killing 23 and wounding 55.
Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are making their way to the city to commemorate Arbaeen, the end of 40 days of mourning following the anniversary of the death of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, Imam Hussein, a revered Shiite figure.
Earlier in the day, gunmen opened fire on a bus in Mosul that was carrying Shiite pilgrims, killing 11 and wounding eight.
In other violence Monday, a group of suicide bombers launched an attack on a police station in the town of Beiji, a former insurgent stronghold north of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into the main gate of the town police station.