BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Militants attacked a group of pilgrims in Baghdad on Sunday as they walked to one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest festivals, killing three people and wounding 36, Iraqi police said.
They said the pilgrims were hit by a roadside bomb and thenfired on by gunmen in Doura, a southern district of Baghdad, ona road used by hundreds of pilgrims walking to the festival ofArbain in the holy southern Shi'ite city of Kerbala.
Millions of Shi'ite pilgrims are expected in Kerbala forthe festival this week, which commemorates the end of the40-day mourning period following Ashura, a religious ritualthat marks the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson in 680.
Many Arbain pilgrims prefer to walk to Kerbala, 110 km (70miles) south of Baghdad, because they believe the effort willbring them greater spiritual reward.
Security has been tightened compared to previous years,Kerbala's police chief Major-General Raad Shakir told Reuterslast week, and Iraqi tanks are being used to protect the cityfor the first time, in addition to 40,000 police and soldiers.
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.
(Writing by Mohammed Abbas; editing by Sami Aboudi)
