Eight suicide bombers struck in quick succession Saturday in a wave of attacks that killed 55 people as Iraqi Shiites marched and lashed themselves with chains in ritual mourning of the death of the founder of their Muslim sect 14 centuries ago.
Ninety-one people have been killed in violence in the last two days.
For the second year running, insurgent attacks shattered the commemoration of Ashoura, the holiest day of the Shiite religious calendar, although the violence produced a significantly smaller death toll than the 181 killed in twin bombings in Baghdad and the holy city of Karbala a year ago.
With majority Shiites poised to take control of the country for the first time in modern Iraqi history, the interim government and Shiite politicians vowed the bloodshed would not cause the nation to spiral into civil war.
The suicide bombings were attempts “to create a religious war within Iraq,” said Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, the national security adviser for the interim government. “Iraqis will not allow this to happen. Iraqis will stand united as Iraqis foremost, and Iraq will not fall into sectarian war.
“The bombings on Shiite mosques and shrines on Ashoura by terrorists that call themselves Muslims are in fact actions by terrorists only attempting to spill even more Muslim blood by encouraging sectarian violence.”