Baghdad - A woman in the Iraqi town of Iskandariyah killed at least 31 people and wounded 35 more when she detonated explosives strapped to her body on Friday, a police spokesman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "A suicide bomber infiltrated a crowd of women who were on pilgrimage to mark the Arbaine ceremony in Karbala, killing at least 31 women and children," the police officer said.
Iskandariyah is roughly 60 kilometres south of Baghdad.
The attack targeted pilgrims commemorating the death of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Hussein, at the Battle of Karbala in the year 680.
Millions of Shiites walk to his shrine in Karbala, 130 kilometres south of Baghdad, over the course of the "Arbaine," or 40 days of mourning, every year, in a ritual that will reach its conclusion on Monday.
The Friday attack followed another bomb targeting pilgrims that killed at least 10 people in Karbala on Thursday. At least 56 people were injured in the blast, many of them critically, hospital workers told
