New Delhi: Suicide bombers struck a crowd of Shiite pilgrims in Hilla, Iraq on Tuesday, killing over 120 people and wounding at least 200.
The series of bombings and small arms attacks took place as the pilgrims were heading towards the holy city of Karbala.
"Two bombers struck the crowd of pilgrims on foot in the mostly Shiite city, about 80 miles south of Baghdad," a Hilla police official was quoted by CNN as saying. The official said 40 of the injured are in critical condition.
The crowd was filing into a pedestrian area at the time of the attack, according to The Associated Press. Iraqi police and ambulances were on the scene, AP reported.
The attack was the latest of several deadly strikes Tuesday on Shiites marking Arbayeen, according to authorities.
Arbayeen falls on Saturday, marking the end of a traditional 40-day mourning period following the anniversary of Imam Hussein's death, known as Ashura.
On Monday, a suicide car bomber turned a venerable book market into a deadly inferno and gunmen targeted Shiite pilgrims as suspected Sunni insurgents brought major bloodshed back into the lap of their main Shiite rivals.
At least 38 people died in the blast and seven pilgrims were killed.
The violence after a relative three-day lull in Baghdad, was seen as another salvo in the Sunni extremist campaign to provoke a sectarian civil war that could tear apart the Shiite-led government and erase Washington's plans for Iraq.
(With inputs from CNN and Associated Press)
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