Security Tightened in Iraq's Kerbala After Blast

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/iraq_kerbala_dc

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Residents said extra checkpoints were set up overnight in the center of the city, home to two shrines of special significance to Shi'ite Muslims, while more Iraqi National Guard units were drafted in on the city's outskirts.


Wednesday's bomb blast, which came ahead of evening prayers on the day Iraq (news - web sites)'s election campaign officially began, appeared to target Abdul-Mehdi al-Kerbalai, a cleric close to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's foremost Shi'ite authority.


Doctors said Kerbalai was recovering in intensive care with extensive shrapnel wounds to his legs. Four of his bodyguards were killed in the blast, which struck as the cleric was walking from his office to the nearby Imam Hussein shrine.


Many of those wounded were shopkeepers and passers-by. The area around Kerbala's shrines, popular with pilgrims, is full of narrow streets packed with shops and street vendors.