Shia pilgrims killed in Iraq attacks

Bombers today killed at least 25 people in attacks on Shia worshippers who were marking the climax of the Ashura religious festival in towns near Baghdad.

Gunmen also killed four pilgrims and wounded six in the capital's south-west district of Bayaa, the Reuters news agency reported.

The first bomb exploded at 11.30am (8.30am BST) in a rubbish bin in central Khanaqin, near the Iranian border. At least 13 people were killed and 39 wounded, most of them Shia Kurds, police said.

About an hour later, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the entrance of a mosque in a town about 50 miles south of Khanaqin, Associated Press reported.