By Habib al-Zubaidi
HILLA, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber targeting pilgrimsheading to one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest festivals killed 40people and wounded 60, including women and children, south ofBaghdad on Sunday, police said.
The U.S. military said it was trying to confirm reportsthat 60 people had been killed and 100 wounded in the bombingin the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad.
Most of the casualties were hit by metal ball bearings,said a doctor at a hospital in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) southof the capital. A wounded woman there said the attack happenedin a tent where pilgrims were offered refreshments.
"When we reached the area people invited us into a tent totake some rest and have some food. When we entered, there was ahuge ball of fire and we saw people lying on the ground," saidUm Amr, who was being treated for multiple wounds.
Police and the U.S. military said the bomber struck hoursafter militants killed three pilgrims and wounded 36 others inan attack in southern Baghdad.
Captain Muthanna al-Mamouri, spokesman for police in Hilla,said 40 people were killed and 60 wounded in the Iskandariyaattack, despite a major tightening of security.
The U.S. military said in a statement that the attack tookplace on 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.
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.
VEHICLE BAN
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.
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.
(Additional reporting by Michael Holden in Baghdad and Samial-Jumaili in Kerbala, writing by Mohammed Abbas; editing byRoss Colvin and Sami Aboudi)
