Blasts are the latest in a surge of nationwide bloodshed that has left more than 3,600 people dead this year in Iraq Three separate attacks targeting Shia Muslim pilgrims in Baghdad on Thursday left at least 31 people dead and 61 others injured ahead of a major religious holiday, police sources told Al Jazeera. The attackers defied a shutdown of major roadways for Shia religious faithful, who were heading to the Imam Kadhim shrine in Kadimiyah in western Baghdad to commemorate the death of the Shia saint in 799 AD. The two-day rituals are due to climax on Saturday and Sunday. Among the attacks, police said a suicide bomber targeted Shia pilgrims at a bus stop as they gathered to head toward a religious shrine in the Kadimiyah neighborhood. In the Mansour area, a parked car exploded as pilgrims stopped to rest before making their way on a highway […]