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Mortar fire south of Baghdad kills 9, police, hospital sources say

by Reuters
Sunday, 20 July 2014 19:36 GMT

BAGHDAD, July 20 (Reuters) - Nine people were killed in a mainly Shi'ite town south of Baghdad late on Sunday by mortar fire that hit near a Shi'ite religious site, police and hospital sources said.

The sources in the town of Mahmoudiya said eight mortar rounds landed near a "husseiniya," a religious site devoted to Hussein, a martyr in Shi'ite tradition.

The source of the shelling was not immediately clear.

Two roadside bombs also exploded in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, killing five Shi'ite volunteer fighters, police and hospital sources said.

The mortar attack comes a day after the deadliest day of attacks in the capital since a Sunni insurgency overran large parts of Iraq's north last month. At least 27 people were killed in a wave of bombings in mostly Shi'ite Muslim areas of Baghdad.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Sunday for the bombings.

(Reporting by Kareem Raheem; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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