30 killed as IS unleashes mortar bombs and suicide bombs on Iraqi shrine

At least 30 people have been killed in an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant suicide bomb, gun and mortar attack on a Shia shrine north of Iraq’s capital Baghdad. Another 60 were wounded in the assault on the Sayyid Mohammed shrine in Balad. They died as the attackers, thought to be from Islamic State and including at least woman, fired mortar rounds at the shrine before suicide bombers arrived and opened fire. Two of the bombers blew themselves up in a market next to the shrine, while a third was gunned down by a security guard and his explosives belt defused.

People are tired of all the deaths. People are tired of wearing black. People are tired of all the tears

Iraqi student Heba Ali

The attack came hours after the death toll in a devastating bombing in a crowded shopping area of Baghdad on Sunday was raised to 292. The blast tore through an area packed with people preparing for the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The initial blast killed a limited number of people, but flames spread and trapped people inside shopping centres that lacked emergency exits. The bodies of 115 killed in the bombing had now been handed over to families, while the identities of 177 others have yet to be determined, health officials said,

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