TEHRAN – In two terrorist bomb attacks in Iraq’s holy cities of Karbala and Najaf on Monday nine Iranian pilgrims were killed and many more injured.

In the first incident, a bomb hit a bus carrying Iranians near the holy city of Karbala in central Iraq, killing three pilgrims and injuring 22 others.
Javad Khani, the representative of the Iran Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization in Iraq, told the Mehr News Agency that “the explosion in Karbala killed three and injured 22 Iranians.”
“The rest of the victims were Iraqis,” Khani added.
The second bombing in Najaf targeted three buses carrying Iranian pilgrims, killing six other Iranians, the ISNA news agency reported. Iraqi officials said the blast was about 500 yards from the revered shrine of Imam Ali (AS).
In Karbala the bomber drew his booby-trapped vehicle up next to the bus carrying the pilgrims and then detonated his payload.
“It was a suicide bomber who drove up against a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims and detonated the explosives,” a police official told AFP.
Najaf and Karbala, which host the shrines of Imam Ali (AS) and his son Imam Hussein (AS), attract hundreds of Iranian Shias every day.
It is not the first time that Iranian pilgrims have come under attacks by terrorists with the aim of fomenting religious division.
The attacks came as Iraq's top political leaders met publicly for the first time to end a protracted crisis over forming a new government.