A wave of bombings and shootings across Iraq killed 22 people yesterday as the country grappled with anti-Government rallies and simmering political crises ahead of major Shiite commemoration rituals.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in more than a dozen towns and cities that wounded 83 people, but Sunni militants such as Al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq regularly target officials and security forces in a bid to destabilise the Government, and also often attack Shiite pilgrims.

The violence comes after anti-Government protesters blocked a key highway to Syria and Jordan, amid political tensions between Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and a secular Sunni-backed party in his fragile national unity Government.

Much of yesterday’s violence targeted Shiite pilgrims, ahead of Arbaeen commemoration ceremonies due this week.

In the deadliest attack, seven people – three women, two children and two men – were killed when three houses were blown up in the town of Mussayib, south of Baghdad, police and a medic said. Four others were wounded.

The victims were apparently targeted because they were Shiites, the officials said.

Shiite pilgrims embarking on the traditional walk to the holy shrine city of Karbala for Arbaeen commemorations were hit by three mortar strikes south of Baghdad that killed one worshipper and wounded nine others.

A series of attacks in restive Diyala province, north of Baghdad, wounded 19 people, including 10 Shiite pilgrims who were walking to Karbala.

Arbaeen marks 40 days after the Ashura anniversary commemorating the slaying of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam’s most revered figures, by the armies of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD. Sunni militants often use the rituals as an opportunity to increase attacks against Shiites. Attacks in Baghdad and north of the city, meanwhile, killed 12 people.

In the capital’s central commercial district of Karrada, a car bomb detonated by a suicide attacker left at least four dead and 20 others wounded, security and medical officials said.

Authorities quickly cordoned off the scene of the blast and barred journalists from entering or taking photos and videos. A series of bombings in the ethnically mixed northern city of Kirkuk and nearby towns killed five policemen and wounded 11 others.

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