Aug 29, 2003: A car bomb kills 83 people, including leading Shia politician Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, outside one of Shia Islam&'s holiest shrines in Najaf

Feb 1, 2004: 117 people are killed when two bombers blew themselves up in Arbil, north Iraq March 2, 2004: 171 people are killed in twin attacks in Baghdad and Karbala on Shia festival-goers

Feb 28, 2005: A car bomb in Hilla, south of Baghdad, kills 125 people. It was previously Iraq&'s worst single blast

July 16, 2005: A suicide bomber in a fuel truck kills 98 near a Shia mosque in Mussayib, near Karbala

Sept 14, 2005: At least 128 people are killed as a suicide bomber targets labourers in the Baghdad Shia district of Kadhimiyah

Sept 29, 2005: A triple car bombing claimed by al-Qa&'eda in Iraq leaves 99 dead in Balad, a primarily Shia town north of Baghdad

Jan 5, 2006: Suicide bombers kill 53 people killed in Karbala and 70 in Ramadi

April 7, 2006: Ninety people killed when three suicide bombers, two of them disguised as women, attack worshippers at a Shia mosque in Baghdad

Nov 23, 2006: Six apparently co-ordinated car bombs and a mortar blast in different parts of the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad kill at least 154 people

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