Baghdad: A car bomb against Shiite pilgrims in central Iraq killed at least 16 people and wounded 10 on Monday, a day before the peak of the Shiite Ashura religious commemoration, officials said.
"Four people were killed and 10 wounded" in the attack on Shiite pilgrims in the Neel area, near Hilla, to the south of the Iraqi capital, an interior ministry official said.
Shortly after this it was reported that a medic said the death toll had risen to 16.
A Hilla police source had given a death toll of eight.
"A car bomb exploded targeting a convoy of pilgrims in Neel, killing eight people and wounding 30," the police source said.
The Ashura commemoration ceremonies, which peak on Tuesday, mark the killing of Imam Hussein by armies of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD.
Monday's attack comes with less than a month to go before US troops are to have completed withdrawing from Iraq.
Violence has declined in Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 187 people were killed in November, according to official figures.
