The toll from a suicide bombing that targeted Shia pilgrims near the city of Samarra yesterday, one of Iraq's worst in recent weeks, rose to 48 dead and 80 wounded, police said today.
The bomber detonated an explosives vest yesterday at a bus depot at the entry to Samarra, where Shia gathered last week to commemorate the death of one of their 12 revered imams.
The attacker managed to infiltrate a crowd of pilgrims at a security checkpoint where authorities used explosives-sniffing dogs to search vehicles before they entered the city.
"From the cruelty I've seen, it's al-Qaeda who carried out this terrorist attack. Al-Qaeda insists on undermining stability and peace in Samarra," said Majeed Abbas, a local leader of the government-backed Sunni Sahwa militia.
While overall violence has dropped sharply in Iraq since the peak of sectarian warfare in 2006-7, security forces are fighting a weakened but still lethal insurgency and bombings and other attacks occur daily.
Attacks on Shia pilgrims last month near the holy city of Kerbala killed dozens. At least seven people died and 78 were wounded by car bombs in the northern city of Kirkuk on Wednesday.
Samarra, 100km north of Baghdad, is the home of the al-Askari mosque and shrine. Shia gathered to mark the death of Hasan al-Askari, the 11th of the 12 imams.
Shia religious events were banned under Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, who was ousted in the US-led invasion in 2003.
Agencies