Ashura in Iraq: 41 killed in sectarian attacks

A suicide bomber, disguised as a police officer, killed 32 mourners in one of three attacks from the day.

Attacks against Shia Muslims, including a suicide bombing that ripped through a religious procession, killed 41 people in Iraq on Thursday, despite massive security deployed for one of the holiest days of their faith.

The bloodshed came as a flood of worshippers, including tens of thousands of foreign pilgrims, thronged the central shrine city of Karbala for the climax of Ashura, braving the repeated attacks by Sunni militants that have marred the festival in previous years.

A suicide bomber, who was disguised in a police uniform, struck in a Shia-majority area in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, killing 32 people and wounding 80, security and medical officials said.

It was the third attack of the day to target Shia Muslims.

Earlier, coordinated blasts in the town of Hafriyah, south of the capital, killed nine people, while twin bombings in the northern oil city of Kirkuk wounded five.

Shias from Iraq and around the world mark Ashura, which this year climaxes on Thursday, by setting up procession tents where food is distributed to passers-by and pilgrims can gather.

Some two million will make the pilgrimage, often on foot, to the Iraqi city of Karbala, which is home to a shrine to Imam Hussein.

Hussein, grandson of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, was killed by the armies of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD and his death in Karbala has come to symbolise the split between Islam's Sunni and Shia sects.

Tradition holds that the venerated imam was decapitated and his body mutilated.

To mark the occasion, modern-day Shia mourners flood Hussein's shrine, demonstrating their ritual guilt and remorse for not defending him by beating their heads and chests and, in some cases, making incisions on their scalps with swords in rituals of self-flagellation.

On Thursday, black-clad pilgrims packed the shrines of Hussein and his half-brother Abbas, listening over loudspeakers to the story of the battle in which Hussein was killed as volunteers distributed food and water.

They will later carry out a ritual run to the shrine, striking their heads and shouting, "We sacrifice for you, O Hussein!"

The commemorations, which also include a reenactment of the attack that killed Hussein, were due to wrap up after midday prayers.

Provincial authorities expect two million pilgrims, including 200,000 from outside Iraq, will have visited Karbala in the 10 days leading up to Ashura, with all of the city's hotels fully booked.

Shias make up about 15 percent of Muslims worldwide. They are a majority in Iraq, Iran and Bahrain, and there are large Shia communities in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and Syria.

Sunni militants linked to al Qaeda, who regard Shias as apostates, often step up their targeting of Iraq's majority community during Ashura and the subsequent rituals of Arbaeen, including by attacking pilgrims.

Security measures have been stepped up, with more than 35,000 soldiers and policemen currently deployed to Karbala and surrounding areas, with concentric security perimeters barring vehicles from entering the city while helicopters hover overhead.

Now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime barred the vast majority of Ashura and Arbaeen commemorations.

The violence against Shias is the latest in Iraq's worst unrest since 2008 and forced Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to appeal to the United States for help in the form of intelligence sharing and the delivery of new weapons systems in an effort to deal with the unrest.

Turkey's foreign minister also offered Ankara's assistance during a recent visit to Baghdad.