TEHRAN - At least 78 Iranian pilgrims were killed in bloody suicide attacks in Iraq on Thursday and Friday.

In a twin suicide bombing at the Imam Moussa al-Khadim shrine in Baghdad on Friday, at least 60 people were killed, among them 25 Iranian pilgrims, Iraqi police said.
In the blast, which also left at least 125 people injured, the bombers detonated their explosives belts within minutes of each other near two gates of the revered shrine, which was crowded with worshippers, the BBC said on its website.
The incident came one day after 53 Iranian pilgrims were killed and over 70 others wounded in a suicide attack in northeast Baghdad on Thursday.
Thursday’s blast occurred inside a crowded roadside restaurant filled with Iranian pilgrims near Muqdadiya in Diyala province.
The suicide bomber, wearing a belt of explosives, blew himself up at lunch time.
Mohsen Hakim, the representative of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraqi in Iran, blamed Al-Qaeda and the remnants of the Baath regime for the terror act.
“We consider the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization and the remnants of the Baath party to be responsible for this act.”
According to Iranian state TV, the pilgrims were from Tehran, Semnan, Qazvin, and Isfahan.
An official from Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization said that of the 53 pilgrims killed, so far only three have been identified.
“The rest carried no identification card,” Hossein Akbari told the ISNA news agency.
The identities of four of the injured being treated in a hospital in Baghdad are also unknown since they are not able to speak due to the severity of their injuries, Akbari explained.
According to the official, the bodies were to be transported to Iran on Friday.
He added that 14 Iranian pilgrims are currently hospitalized in Baquba.
Akbari said 30 of the injured were transferred to Iran on Friday by ambulances and 24 others who suffered light injuries arrived in Kermanshah on Friday morning.
The Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization announced on Thursday that the caravans that were hit by the terrorist act had been organized by travel agencies acting under the supervision of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization.
Akbari insisted that the hajj organization authorizes visits to Iraq only through the Mehran and Shalamcheh border checkpoints as safe routes, adding that the CHTHO is responsible for sending pilgrims to the country through the Khosravi border point.
“We have always said that this route (the Khosravi border point) is not safe for individual pilgrims or caravans (organized) by travel agencies,” Akbari complained.
These travel agencies that had sent pilgrims from the provinces of Tehran, Semnan, Qazvin, and Isfahan had provided no security for their customers, he stated.
Diyala Governor Abdulnasir al-Muntasirbillah described the scenes at the hospital in Baquba as “catastrophic”.
“Words can't express it. It is a dirty, cowardly terrorist act,” Reuters quoted Muntasirbillah as saying.
Iranians regularly visit holy shrines in Iraq.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the carnage.
President Ahmadinejad has offered his condolences to the bereaved families. The president also criticized the U.S. for failing to secure the country.
An Iranian Embassy official in Baghdad, Kazem Foroutan, told the Mehr News Agency that new security measures will be implemented on the routes leading to holy shrines in Iraq and the relevant bodies will certainly impose new restrictions for trips to Iraq.
Foroutan also said such acts are usually the work of Al-Qaeda.
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