By Waleed Ibrahim and Aseel Kami
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber infiltrated a crowd of Shi'ite pilgrims and blew himself up, killing at least 35 people and wounding at least 79 at a Shi'ite shrine in Baghdad on Sunday, Iraqi officials said.
The bomber struck a checkpoint outside the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in Kadhimiya, a mainly Shi'ite area of Baghdad, as Shi'ites prepared for the Ashura holiday this week to mourn the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.
Many of the casualties were pilgrims from Iran, security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said, underscoring the religious ties between the two majority Shi'ite countries.
Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency, monitored by the BBC in London, said that at least 15 Iranians were among those killed along with 36 wounded.
Moussawi had earlier said the bomber was female but later said an investigation of the scene concluded it was a man. He said 35 people were killed and 79 wounded. Other Iraqi security sources gave slightly higher casualty figures.
"There were bodies everywhere, some of them missing legs and arms. This is a disaster," said eyewitness Said Qassim, who was distributing food to pilgrims nearby at the time of the blast.
"I can't understand how ... No one can get in here without going through seven checkpoints," he said.
A Shi'ite cleric called on Iraqi security forces to be "more awake" and for the planners of the bombing to be punished.
"The Iraqi people will not bow down to such crimes. We'll teach those people who did this unforgettable lessons," Mohammed Taqi al-Mudarisi said in a statement from his office in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf.
Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi blamed al Qaeda-linked groups in a statement, calling them "terrorist gangs."
"Al Qaeda have no place in Iraq. Their dark hatred against Iraqi people will only increase their solidarity and resolve to defeat terrorists, criminals and killers," he said.
SECURITY FORCES TESTED
Hundreds of thousands of Shi'ites will visit the holy city of Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad this week to mourn the death of Hussein in a 7th century battle, a day of passionate observance in the Shi'ite calendar.
Sunni militants have frequently targeted Shi'ite religious pilgrimages, which have become massive events since the fall of Saddam Hussein, who repressed them.
In 2004, at the first Ashura pilgrimage after Saddam's fall, Sunni militants killed more than 160 pilgrims in coordinated strikes on Kadhimiya and Kerbala, an early portent of the sectarian fighting that would ravage Iraq in the next few years.
Kerbala police chief Ali al-Ghurairi told Reuters 22,000 security agents had been deployed throughout the city to prevent that carnage being repeated.
"We also deployed bomb sniffer dogs, snipers and an anti-riot unit. We are on 100 percent alert," he said.
But despite the violence, pilgrimages continue to attract hundreds of thousands of worshippers, including many from Iran.
U.S. forces in Iraq came under an Iraqi mandate on January 1 under a pact that requires them to withdraw by the end of 2011. They are slowly disengaging from day-to-day patrols and due to pull combat troops out of towns by mid-2009.
On Sunday U.S. forces put the Iraqi government in charge of mainly Sunni Arab tribal guards in ethnically and religiously mixed northern Diyala province, one of the most violent areas in the country.
Violence has dropped dramatically from the peak of sectarian bloodshed in 2006-2007, but militants regularly stage bombings.
(Additional reporting by Aws Qusay; Writing by Tim Cocks and Missy Ryan; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
