Iraqi Officials Visit Basra Blast Victims

Iraq's Deputy Health Minister and other local officials in the southern port city of Basra visit hospitalized victims of a suicide bombing the day before. 

             

The suicide bomber, disguised as a policeman, killed at least 53 people and wounded scores more in an attack on Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims at a checkpoint on Saturday.  

           

Deputy Health Minister Jabbar al-Saedi said medical personnel are doing everything they can to help the victims.

 

[Jabbar Al-Saedi, Iraq’s Deputy Health Minister]:              

"Our hospitals have carried out needed operations on the wounded. A number of the wounded have already been discharged from hospitals, and there are now between 60 and 70 wounded who are still in the hospital receiving medical care."  

            

Many scores of people have been killed in attacks on Shi'ite pilgrims in the last few weeks, including in another suicide blast which left at least 44 people dead.  

            

Some Sunni Islamist groups such as al Qaeda view Shi'ites as heretics.