Suicide bomber kills 19

A female suicide bomber killed at least 19 people and wounded 75 in Iraq yesterday when she detonated an explosive vest in a crowd of pilgrims being escorted by police to a shrine south of Baghdad, police said.

The bomber struck around dusk near the town of Iskandariya, 40 kilometres south of the capital, an area where Shi'ite pilgrims have to walk through Sunni Arab towns and villages to reach the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala.

At least one policeman was killed and three were wounded in the attack in a volatile, religiously mixed area once known to US troops as the "triangle of death".

Thousands of pilgrims have begun travelling on foot towards Kerbela to commemorate the birth of the 12th Imam al-Mehdi, a Messiah-like figure revered by Shi'ite Muslims, who believe he disappeared centuries ago but never died.

Several pilgrimages, often attended by hundreds of thousands of worshippers, have become an annual ritual show of strength for Iraq's Shi'ite majority since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab who restricted some Shi'ite religious practices.

The events remain high profile targets for sectarian attacks despite a dramatic improvement in Iraq's overall security situation over the past year.