53 Shia pilgrims killed in south Iraq blast

A bomb killed at least 53 Shia pilgrims near the southern city of Basra on Saturday,an Iraqi official said. The attack took place on the last of the 40 days of Arbaeen,when hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims from Iraq and abroad visit the city of Karbala.

Saturdays blast occurred near the town of Zubair as pilgrims marched toward the Shia Imam Ali shrine on the outskirts of the town,said Ayad al-Emarah,a spokesman for the governor of Basra province. The shrine is an enclave within an enclave a Shia site on the edge of a mostly Sunni town in an otherwise mostly Shia province.

There were conflicting reports on the source of the blast. Al-Emarah said the explosion was caused either by a suicide attacker or a roadside bomb. But an Iraqi military intelligence officer who is investigating the attack said it was a roadside bomb,noting that the road from Basra to Zubair being used by pilgrims had been closed to traffic.

Basra hospital received 53 killed and 137 wounded after the blast,said Dr Riyadh Abdul-Amir,the head of Basra Health Directorate. He said some of the wounded were in serious condition,and warned the death toll may rise further.