Blasts kill 143 pilgrims in Iraq

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BAGHDAD -- Simultaneous terrorist attacks killed at least 143 Muslim pilgrims and wounded hundreds yesterday as they marked a sacred Shi'ite religious holiday for the first time in decades. Unofficial death tolls ranged at more than 200.

U.S. officials blamed the mayhem, described as Iraq's bloodiest day since the end of the war, on an operative of terror network al Qaeda who recently drafted a letter proposing to try to start a civil war between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.

Explosions in the holy city of Karbala, about 75 miles south of the capital, Baghdad, tore through a procession of more than 1 million at the close of the 10-day festival of Ashura, the most holy day on the Shi'ite calendar. It commemorates the 7th-century martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Muhammad.

Moments later in Baghdad, multiple suicide bombers attacked pilgrims commemorating the holiday at the city's main Shi'ite mosque.

Iraqi officials declared a three-day period of mourning and suggested that a ceremony today to sign an interim constitution would be delayed.

In both cities, panicked pilgrims fled the explosions in terror, sometimes running head-on into another blast.

A woman, her face bloodied beneath a black veil, held her husband as a child lay nearby.

A giant green flag carried in celebration became a makeshift stretcher stained with the blood and charred skin of a victim being pulled to safety.

The terror quickly turned to rage, with crowds at Baghdad's Kazimiya mosque attacking American soldiers who arrived shortly after the blasts, leaving two with broken bones.