BAGHDAD (AP) — A wave of car bombs struck Shiite pilgrims in several cities across Iraq today, killing at least 65 people and wounding more than 200 in one of the deadliest attacks since U.S. troops withdrew from the country.

The bloodshed was a stark reminder of the political tensions threatening to provoke a new round of sectarian violence that once pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war. Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents who frequently target Shiites in Iraq.

Today’s blasts were the third attack this week targeting the annual pilgrimage that sees hundreds of thousands of Shiites converge on Baghdad to commemorate the 8th century death of revered Imam Moussa al-Kadhim, who is interred in a shrine in the northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah.

Most of the 16 separate explosions that rocked the country targeted the Shiite pilgrims, but two hit offices of political parties linked to Iraq’s Kurdish minority. Authorities had tightened security ahead of the pilgrimage, including a blockade of the mainly Sunni area of Azamiyah, which is near the twin-domed Shiite shrine.

The level of violence has dropped dramatically in Iraq since peaking in 2006-07 as the country faced a Sunni-led insurgency and retaliatory sectarian fighting that broke out after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

But political divisions have only deepened, paralyzing the country since the Americans withdrew all combat troops in mid-December.

The first bomb struck a procession at around 5 a.m. in the town of Taji, north of Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding two others, two police officers said.

That was followed by four more morning blasts that hit other groups of pilgrims across the capital, killing 25 people and wounding more than 70, according to police and health officials.

South of Baghdad, two car bombs exploded minutes apart at dawn in the center of the city of Hillah, killing 21 people and wounding 53, according to two police officers and one health worker.

A parked car bomb also exploded near a group of pilgrims in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 55 miles south of Baghdad, at about 8 a.m., killing two people and wounding 22 others, a police official and health official said.

Two nearly simultaneous car bombs also killed seven pilgrims and wounded 34 in the Shiite town of Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, a police official and health official said.

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