Iraqi officials threw a massive security cordon around the holy city of Karbala on Friday after a wave of bombings in 24 hours killed at least 20 Shiite worshippers and wounded dozens.The attacks came ahead of a Shiite festival on Sunday to venerate Imam Mahdi.
More than 40,000 soldiers and police have been mobilized, including 2,000 female security workers, an AFP reporter witnessed, to boost security in response to twin suicide bombings that killed 22 people on Thursday.
Two women detonated their explosives-packed vests 50 meters (yards) apart and at a five-minute interval in Iskandariyah, 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Baghdad, according to police Lieutenant Kazem al-Khafaji in Babil province.
The blasts also wounded at least 73, most of them young men but also women and children, in the deadliest attack to hit the war-torn nation since last Friday when 21 people were killed by a car bomb in Tal Afar.
General Fade Reza, police chief in Babil (Babylon) province, said on Friday he was unsure how many bombers had been involved, but that there had definitely been two bombs. Eyewitness reports also spoke of two explosions, contrasting with the U.S. military account that said it believed only one woman was behind the attacks.
Iraqi aircraft could be seen overhead and U.S. helicopters monitored the area around the holy city, including the desert west of Karbala from which Sunni insurgents tend to launch mortar and rockets attacks.