Suicide bomber kills 40 in Iraq

KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber targetingpilgrims heading to one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest festivalskilled 40 people, including women and children, south ofBaghdad on Sunday, police said.

Police and the U.S. military said the bomber struck in thetown of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, hoursafter militants killed three pilgrims and wounded 36 others inan attack in southern Baghdad, police said.

Police said 40 people were killed and 46 wounded, despite amajor tightening of security. The U.S. military had saidhospital officials were reporting 25 dead and 50 wounded.

The military said in a statement that the attack took placeon a two-lane highway near a residential area where about42,000 pilgrims had passed through earlier in the day.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police have beendeployed for the Arbain festival after suspected Sunni Arabinsurgents killed 149 pilgrims on their way to Kerbala for theevent last year, in one of the worst spasms of violence sincethe U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The pilgrims are particularly vulnerable to attack becausemany prefer to walk to Kerbala, 110 km (70 miles) south ofBaghdad. They believe the effort will bring them greaterspiritual reward.

In the Baghdad attack, the pilgrims were hit by a roadsidebomb and then fired on by gunmen on a road used by thousands ofpilgrims walking to the festival of Arbain in the holy southernShi'ite city of Kerbala, police said.

The U.S. military gave a different account, saying gunmenhad lobbed hand grenades at the pilgrims in Baghdad, killingone and wounding 17.

It said U.S. and Iraqi forces would increase patrols andcheckpoints, restricting vehicle access through key routes toKerbala from southern Baghdad.

VEHICLE BAN

Millions of Shi'ite pilgrims are expected in Kerbala forArbain this week, which commemorates the end of the 40-daymourning period following Ashura, a religious ritual that marksthe death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson in 680.

Kerbala's police chief, Major-General Raad Shakir, toldReuters last week that 40,000 police and soldiers had beendeployed and that Iraqi tanks were being used to protect thecity for the first time.

All public transport, including bicycles, has been bannedwithin a 25 km (15.5 mile) radius of the city, and 600 femalesecurity staff have been assigned to search women, police said.

Militants have used horses and carts, bicycles andmotorcycles in bomb attacks in the past. There has also been aspate of suicide bombings carried out by women in recentmonths.

In previous years, militants have killed scores of pilgrimsin suicide bombings and other attacks. Sunni Islamist al Qaedaviews Shi'ites, a majority in Iraq but a minority in the Muslimworld, as heretics.

Last August, clashes between rival Shi'ite factions duringanother religious festival in Kerbala killed dozens of peopleand forced the hurried evacuation of hundreds of thousands ofpilgrims.

(Writing by Mohammed Abbas; editing by Ross Colvin andCharles Dick)