Baghdad: Attacks across Iraq targeting security forces and those marking a major Shiite commemoration killed 21 people on Wednesday while gunmen in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah assassinated the city's mayor as he was supervising a clean-up project.
The deadliest among Wednesday's attacks was the one targeting a group of Shiites marking Ashoura in the eastern city of Baqouba, a former al-Qaida stronghold, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad.
That attack killed eight people, including two children, and wounded 35, a police officer said.
Shiites are marking Ashoura, the remembrance commemorating the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala in present-day Iraq in the 7th century.
The commemoration draws hundreds of thousands of Shiites to mourning ceremonies. Sunni extremists also target those marking Ashoura, as they consider Shiites to be heretics.
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