Four bomb attacks have killed at least 53 people and injured hundreds in one of the most bloody days in Iraq in months.
Three female suicide bombers killed 28 people and wounded 92 when they blew themselves up among Shias walking through the streets of Baghdad on a religious pilgrimage today, Iraqi police said.
In the northern oil city of Kirkuk a suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded 150 at a protest against a disputed local elections law, Iraqi health and security officials said. One security official said the bomber may also have been a woman.
The attacks mark one of the bloodiest days in Iraq in months and underscored the fragility of recent security gains in the country, where violence is at its lowest level since early 2004.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Baghdad blasts but Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda often targets Shia pilgrims. It considers Shi'ism - the majority Muslim denomination in Iraq - heretical.
At least 1 million people are expected to take part in the pilgrimage in the Iraqi capital, which peaks tomorrow and marks the death of one of Shia Islam's 12 imams, one of the most important events in the Shia religious calendar.
"These blasts that happened today will increase our determination to finalise this ceremony ... and defeat terrorism," pilgrim Taher Abd-Noor said.
Al-Qaeda has increasingly used women to carry out suicide attacks because they can often evade the more stringent security checks applied to men. Women have carried out some 20 suicide attacks in Iraq this year, the US military has said.
The apparently coordinated blasts in Baghdad shattered a period of relative calm in the city and took place despite heavy security for the annual pilgrimage to the Kadhamiya shrine.
US commanders caution that despite better security, suicide bombers wearing vests packed with explosives will still periodically manage to slip into crowded places.
The US military put the Baghdad death toll at 20, but did not specify if the suicide bombers were women. It said 16 people had been killed in Kirkuk.
Police yesterday said gunmen killed seven pilgrims in southern Baghdad as they made their way to the shrine, but some officials today said they were unaware of the incident.