By Sami al-Jumaili
KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber targeting agroup of pilgrims heading to one of Shi'ite Islam's holiestfestivals killed 25 people and wounded 45 others south ofBaghdad on Sunday, Iraqi police said.
The bomber struck in the town of Iskandariya hours aftermilitants killed three pilgrims and wounded 36 others in anattack in Baghdad, police said.
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.
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.
Suspected Sunni Arab insurgents killed 149 pilgrims ontheir way to Kerbala for Arbain last year in one of the worstspasms of violence since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
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 Dean Yates)
