Attacks mostly against Shias, including a suicide bombing that ripped through a religious procession, killed 43 people in Iraq on Thursday despite massive security deployed for one of the holiest days of their faith.
The bloodshed came as a flood of worshippers, including tens of thousands of foreign pilgrims, thronged the central shrine city of Karbala for the climax of Ashura, braving the repeated attacks by Sunni militants that have marred the festival in previous years.
The suicide bomber, who was disguised in a police uniform, struck in a Shiite-majority area of confessionally mixed Diyala province, north of Baghdad, killing 43 people and wounding 80, security and medical officials said.
It was the third attack of the day to target Shias.