HILLA, Feb 24: At least 40 people were killed on Sunday south of Baghdad when a suicide bomber detonated a vest filled with explosives at a rest stop for Shia pilgrims on their way to a religious gathering.

Tens of thousands of people are walking to Karbala from across the country to attend the Arbaeen ceremony, which this year falls on Feb 28.

A group of pilgrims paused for lunch just outside Iskandiriyah. “At around 3pm, when pilgrims were eating their lunch inside the tent, a bomber blew himself up amid the crowd,” said Karim al-Tamimi, a police lieutenant.

Mohammed al-Zaidi, a Babil province state health office, said that at least 25 of those wounded were seriously injured.

A US military official put the initial death toll at 25. “The suicide bomber was wearing an explosives vest, who detonated his explosives outside the Hateen Apartments, which is outside of Iskandiriyah,” the official added.

The attack took place on a two-lane highway, the official said.

The US military official said about 42,000 pilgrims had travelled through the area on Sunday.

In other violence in Baghdad, three people were killed and dozens more were wounded in four attacks on pilgrims on the road to Karbala, security and medical sources said.

One pilgrim was killed and 15 were wounded after a roadside bomb blast followed by shooting, said a source at Al-Yarmuk hospital.

Two police officials were also wounded in the attack, the source added.

Two pilgrims were killed and 18 others wounded when insurgents threw a grenade at a group of pilgrims after which shooting broke out, an interior ministry official said.

Ten people were wounded in a third incident, and four others in a fourth incident. All were shot from a distance in Dora, hospital sources told AFP.