Baghdad bombs target Shi'ite pilgrims, 26 killed

By Kareem Raheem

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Double car bombs targeting Shi'ite pilgrims in Baghdad killed at least 26 people on Saturday in the latest attacks by insurgents trying to tip Iraq back into widespread sectarian violence.

It was the third day of bombings to strike Shi'ite pilgrims this week. On Wednesday, a wave of bombings killed more than 75 people across Iraq in the bloodiest violence since U.S. troops left the country in December.

Saturday's car bombs exploded near Baghdad's Kadhimiya district, scattering body parts and clothing along a route used by pilgrims marking the anniversary of the death of Shi'ite imam Moussa al-Kadhim, a great-grandson of Prophet Mohammad.

"We rushed to the scene, there were dismembered bodies, shoes, plastic bags, women's robes left all around, and people were screaming everywhere," said Ahmed Maati, a policeman working nearby.

Television footage showed the charred, twisted shell of one of the vehicles used in the attacks sitting on a main Baghdad road, with other burned-out vehicles nearby.

Attacks on Shi'ite targets are reviving fears Iraq risks slipping back into the broad sectarian slaughter of its recent past, especially as the Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish parties that make up its fragile government feud over sharing power.

With security around Baghdad's Kadhimiya district very tight for the religious festival, one bomber on Saturday posed as a taxi driver and picked up pilgrims to access the area. At least 14 were killed in that initial blast and more than 30 wounded, authorities said.

A second car bomb exploded nearby and killed at least 12 more and wounded 28, police and hospital sources said.