At least 28 people were killed and dozens were injured when four explosions ripped through Baghdad on the eve of Shiite Islam's most important holiday. It was the deadliest day since Iraq 's landmark elections last month.
Suicide bombers attacked two Shiite mosques as Friday prayers were ending, another explosion occurred near a Shiite religious procession and a third suicide bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi police and National Guard checkpoint in a Sunni neighborhood.
The attacks — the deadliest since last month's elections — recalled bombings on the Ashoura holiday a year ago that killed at least 181 during the religious festival.
In northern Iraq, meanwhile, three American soldiers were killed in separate attacks Wednesday and Thursday, the U.S. military said.
The bloodshed began when a bomber entered the vestibule of al-Khadimain mosque in the Iraqi capital's Doura neighborhood and detonated his explosives as worshippers prayed, witness Hussein Rahim Qassim said.
Shortly afterward, a bomb exploded outside the al-Bayaa mosque in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in western Baghdad.
The first explosion killed 15 and the second killed 10, an official at Baghdad's al-Yarmouk Hospital said on condition of anonymity. About 30 were wounded.
Less than an hour later, an explosion near a procession of Shiites marking Ashoura northwest of the city center killed two and injured five, according to Iraqi police Lt. Waed Hussein.
The fourth attack was at the checkpoint in northern Baghdad neighborhood of al-Adamiyah. An Associated Press reporter saw one dead police officer and two wounded civilians.
Shiites had packed into mosques Friday to mark the eve of Ashoura, the 10th day of the Islamic holy month of Muharram and the holiest day of the year for them.
The bombings were a bloody reminder of last year's Ashoura commemorations, when twin blasts ripped through crowds of worshippers at Shiite Muslim shrines in Baghdad and Karbala and killed at least 181 people.
Ashoura marks the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, in a seventh century battle for leadership of the Islamic world.
The imam at the al-Khadimain mosque used the minaret's loudspeakers to appeal for blood donations, said 1st Lt. Ahmad Ali, who added that a suicide bomber was behind the blast.
Quick action from a security guard at the al-Bayaa mosque may have prevented more bloodshed. Amer Mayah said he opened fire on a man — apparently a second suicide attacker at the mosque — who was trying to get two grenades from his pocket, "and immediately he exploded."
There were no immediate claims of responsibility, but Iraqis blamed radical Sunni Muslim insurgents, who have staged car bombs, shootings and kidnappings to try to destabilize Iraq's reconstruction and provoke a sectarian civil war between Shiites and Sunnis.
"Those infidel Wahhabis, those Osama bin Laden followers, they did this because they hate Shiites," said Sari Abdullah, a worshipper at the al-Khadimain mosque who was injured by shrapnel from the explosion. "They are afraid of us. They are not Muslims. They are infidels."
Walid Al-Hilly, a leading figure of the Shiite-led Dawa Party, told Al-Jazeera television the attacks were designed to provoke civil war.
"They kill unarmed men, women and children who want to glorify the ceremonies of Ashoura. These terrorist actions will not intimidate us nor make us change the way that we choose freedom from tyranny and oppression," he said. "We chose the path of brotherhood, cooperation and unity between Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Shabak, Turkomen and Christians and all other sects."
As of Friday, at least 1,473 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
One soldier was shot in Mosul in a small-arms attack Thursday, the military said. West of Mosul, a soldier was killed and another was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded while they were on patrol in Tal Afar, the military said.
Another assault in Mosul on Wednesday took the life of a third U.S. soldier, who died in a car bomb attack while patrolling the volatile city. Three other soldiers were wounded.
The deadly explosions in Baghdad came as Iraq partially sealed its land borders in stepped-up security measures on the eve of the holiday, hoping to avert a repeat of last year's bloodshed.
Land borders were partially closed from Friday to Tuesday, said Thaer al-Naqeeb, spokesman for the interim prime minister. Exceptions included trucks carrying food or oil. Baghdad's international airport will remain open for flights, al-Naqeeb and aviation industry officials said.
In the southern city of Karbala, where Ashoura celebrations will be centered, police found the bodies of two police officers, both the sons of the police chief in Najaf, another southern Shiite city, said Karbala police spokesman Rahman Mushawi. It was not clear who killed the two.
AP