Terrorists Will Pay for Hillah Attack: Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani

The top religious leader in Iraq says those who committed the terrorist attack in Hillah region will pay for their crime.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said the terrorists, who had failed to target the pilgrims during the Arbaeen rituals in Karbala, sought to attack them at a gas station outside the holy city.

The remarks were quoted by his official representative, Ayatollah Ahmad al-Safi on Friday.

ISIS terrorist detonated a truck bomb near a gas station in Shomali village in Hillah region where Iranian pilgrims usually stop for food on their way back from the visiting the shrine of the Shiite’s Imam Hussein (PBUH).

Nearly 100 people died in the attack, mostly Iranian pilgrims.

“This act of terror will increase the number of those loving Imam Hussein (PBUH), and those who committed it will meet their comeuppance on battlegrounds,” Ayatollah Sistani said.

Iraqi security forces had established tight security on the main paths to Karbala and in the city itself during the rituals.