In Iraq, “On Tuesday, 2 March 2004 at least five bombs exploded in the shrine cities of Karbala and Kadhimain. It was the day of ‘Ashoura, the highpoint of the calendar of Shi’a Muslims, commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. Millions of people had congregated in these two cities, mainly in Karbala… The bombs, carried by suicide bombers, went off in the morning in the middle of huge throngs of people. Nearly 270 people died and 570 were wounded.” This bombing, as well as other ones a month earlier in Irbil, “were blamed on the al-Qaeda-affiliated organisation in Iraq, Tawhid wal Jihad, led by the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.”
– Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq, Page 233