A suicide bomber targeting pilgrims heading to one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest festivals killed 40 people, including women and children, south of Baghdad on Sunday. Police and the US military said the bomber struck in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, hours after militants killed three pilgrims and wounded 36 others in an attack in southern Baghdad. The military said in a statement that the attack took place on a two-lane highway near a residential area where about 42,000 pilgrims had passed through earlier in the day. Tens of thousands of Iraqi security personnel have been deployed for the Arbain festival after suspected Sunni Arab insurgents killed 149 pilgrims on their way to Kerbala for the event last year, in one of the worst spates of violence since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The pilgrims are particularly vulnerable to attack because many prefer to walk to the holy city of Kerbala, 110 km (70 miles) south of Baghdad, in the hope of winning greater spiritual reward. All public transport, including bicycles, has been banned within a 25 km (15.5 mile) radius of the city, and 600 female security staff have been assigned to search women.