Suicide bomber kills 19 in Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A female suicide bomber killed 19people, mostly women, and wounded 75 on Thursday when shedetonated an explosive vest in a crowd of pilgrims beingescorted by police to a shrine south of Baghdad, police said.

The bomber struck around dusk near the town of Iskandariya,40 km (25 miles) south of the capital, an area where Shi'itepilgrims have to walk through Sunni Arab towns and villages toreach the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala.

At least one policeman was killed and three were wounded inthe attack in a volatile, religiously mixed area once known toU.S. troops as the "triangle of death". More than half of thosekilled were women, police said.

Thousands of pilgrims have begun travelling on foot towardsKerbala to commemorate the birth of the 12th Imam al-Mehdi, aMessiah-like figure revered by Shi'ite Muslims, who believe hedisappeared centuries ago but never died.

Several pilgrimages, often attended by hundreds ofthousands of worshippers, have become an annual ritual show ofstrength for Iraq's Shi'ite majority since the fall of SaddamHussein, a Sunni Arab who restricted some Shi'ite religiouspractices.

The events remain high-profile targets for sectarianattacks despite a dramatic improvement in Iraq's overallsecurity situation over the past year.

In another incident targeting pilgrims on Thursday, aroadside bomb killed one pilgrim and wounded seven as theywalked through central Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for eitherattack. U.S. and Iraqi authorities say that al Qaeda Sunni Arabmilitants have increasingly relied on women to carry outsuicide attacks as they can evade security searches.

Three female suicide bombers killed nearly 30 people andwounded nearly 100 last month during a pilgrimage in Baghdad.

Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman for Iraqiforces in Baghdad, said authorities would temporarily banpeople from carrying weapons or chanting sectarian slogansduring the coming days to prevent violence.

Accepting food or drink from strangers, traditional duringpilgrimages, would be discouraged. Pilgrims would be requiredto halt their travels at night and to stick to roads patrolledby security forces, he said.

(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami; writing by Peter Graffand Missy Ryan; editing by Tim Pearce)