By Bruno Waterfield - 3rd March 2004
The EU has expressed outrage at devastating terror attacks targeting Shia Muslims in Pakistan and Iraq.
Over 220 people have been killed in a series of bomb blasts – with the death toll in the Iraq cities of Karbala and Baghdad topping 180.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana expressed Europe’s shock at the deadly sectarian outrages.
“I condemn unreservedly these heinous acts of violence, and the criminals, who have turned the holy day of Ashura into a nightmare and a bloodbath for so many Iraqis, Pakistanis and pilgrims from other countries,” he said.
“I wish to offer to the governments of Iraq and Pakistan, as well as to the families of all the victims of these terrible attacks, my sincere condolences.”
European Commission President Romano Prodi said he was "saddened by these events".
"We condemn these terrible and cowardly attacks on pilgrims even though, at this moment, we do not have knowledge of the perpertrators," said his official spokesman.
Suspicion for the bomb blasts has fallen on Sunni Muslim terrorists, with Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zawqawi suspected as a possible mastermind, but the perpetrators of the attacks are as yet unknown.
The latest attacks in Iraq have raised the spectre of sectarian civil war and will intensify concerns over the hand over power from the US-led occupation to an Iraqi regime.
Irish foreign minister and EU president-in-office Brian Cowen condemned “evil acts perpetrated by terrorists who wish to see the failure of ongoing efforts to bring about the restoration of a sovereign, independent and peaceful Iraq to the international community”.
“The freedom to worship being enjoyed by these pilgrims, for the first time in many years, is an example of the benefits to be gained from the ownership of Iraq by the Iraqi people,” he said.
“This is the goal of the EU, the UN and the wider international community.”
Cowen also hit out at a copy-cat bomb blast in the Pakistani city of Quetta.
"[These are] cowardly and evil acts perpetrated by groups who wish to foment sectarian divisions in Pakistan and the wider region. I call on all such groups to refrain from any further violence,” he said.
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