Suicide Car Bomb Hits Iranian Pilgrims in Eastern Iraq, 5 Shia Martyred

A car bomb exploded on Monday in a town northeast of the Iraqi capital while a bus full of Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims was passing, killing five people and wounding nine, security officials said.

Suicide Car Bomb Hits Iranian Pilgrims in Eastern Iraq, 5 Shia MartyredAhlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), A car bomb exploded on Monday in a town northeast of the Iraqi capital while a bus full of Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims was passing, killing five people and wounding nine, security officials said.

The blast occured in Muqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Four of the dead were Iranian pilgrims, who have flocked to Iraq's Shia religious sites.

All of the wounded were Iranian, said a police source and a source in the security operations centre of Diyala province.

The Iraqi bus driver and another Iraqi citizen were also wounded by the blast that targeted Iranian Shiite pilgrims who enter Iraq through Diyala province heading to the Shiite holy sites in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, the source said.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranian pilgrims flock to Iraq to visit holy Shiite shrines since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein.

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