By Xinhua
Baghdad : A suicide bomber Sunday blew himself up at a procession of Shiite pilgrims in the town of Iskandriya, 50 km south of Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing at least 25 pilgrims and wounding some 40 others, an Iraqi interior ministry source said.
“A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up at a procession of Shiite pilgrims who were travelling on foot to the holy city of Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad,” the source told Xinhua.
Earlier, three pilgrims were killed and 46 were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated in the morning and was followed by gunfire from unknown gunmen on the highway in Baghdad’s southern neighbourhood of Doura.
The Shiite pilgrims were heading to Karbala to commemorate the 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam al-Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Mohammad, who was killed in the battle of al-Taf in Karbala in the seventh century.