IRNA � Iran's foreign ministry has condemned the terrorist attack in Iraq on Thursday that caused a large number of deaths and injuries, especially among pilgrims.


A truck bomb went off in the Shoumeli village, 120 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, targeting vehicles loaded with passengers most of them Iranians who were returning home from the holy shrines in Iraq after Arba'een rituals.

Reports so far put the number of the dead at more than 70 with a lot more injured.

'Iran's foreign ministry and the Islamic Republic's embassy in Baghdad are seriously pursuing the case,' Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said.

Qasemi said the terrorists launch such attacks to compensate for the repeated defeats they have to suffer.

'It is an indication of their frustration,' he said.

'Such brutal and inhuman actions are not going to affect the determination of the Iraqi people and its government, neither could they disrupt the Islamic Republic's resistance and the joint relentless fight by Iran and Iraq against terrorism, he said.