A wave of apparently coordinated bombings and shootings rocked Iraq during a major Shiite religious commemoration today, killing at least 72 people and wounding more than 250, many of them pilgrims.

 
The attacks, which came as pilgrims flocked to a shrine to mark the anniversary of the death of Imam Musa Kadhim, a revered imam in Shiite Islam, were the deadliest in Iraq since August 15, 2011 when 74 people were killed.

 
The targeting of Shiite pilgrims was a stark reminder of Sunni-Shiite violence which tore Iraq apart in 2006-2007 and was condemned by parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, who termed it an attempt "to provoke sectarian strife." 

Baghdad was hit by 10 bomb attacks and two shootings that killed at least 28 people and wounded dozens more, according
to an interior ministry official and a medic.

 
The deadliest attack in the capital saw a car bomb explode in the Karrada neighbourhood of central Baghdad where pilgrims were eating breakfast in tents.