Deadly attacks strike Shia religious pilgrims in Baghdad

Three separate attacks targeting Shia Muslim pilgrims in Baghdad on Thursday left at least 31 people dead and 61 others injured ahead of a major religious holiday, police sources told Al Jazeera. 

The attackers defied a shutdown of major roadways for Shia religious faithful, who were heading to the Imam Kadhim shrine in Kadimiyah in western Baghdad to commemorate the death of the Shia saint in 799 AD. The two-day rituals are due to climax on Saturday and Sunday.

Among the attacks, police said a suicide bomber targeted Shia pilgrims at a bus stop as they gathered to head toward a religious shrine in the Kadimiyah neighborhood. In the Mansour area, a parked car exploded as pilgrims stopped to rest before making their way on a highway towards to the shrine. The third attack was caused by a parked car bomb in the predominately Shia neighborhood of Shaab, located northeast of Baghdad.

The blasts are the latest in a protracted surge of nationwide bloodshed that has left more than 3,600 people dead this year, fueling fears that Iraq is slipping back into the brutal communal bloodshed that blighted the country in 2006 and 2007.

Shia pilgrims are often targeted by Sunni militants who regard them as apostates. In past years, multiple attacks have been carried out during the Imam Kadhim commemorations.

Due to the heightened threat of attack authorities had imposed heavy security measures in the capital, involving the closure of entire roads and barring certain vehicles from the streets.

Violence has surged in the past year to its highest level since 2008, while anti-government fighters control an entire city a short drive from Baghdad and parts of another.

The authorities blame external factors such as the civil war in neighboring Syria for the unrest, and say that wide-ranging operations targeting militants are having an impact.

The latest attacks come as Iraq's political parties jostle to build alliances and form a government following elections last month that left incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki likely to remain in office for a third term.

Al Jazeera and wire services