Eight Iraqi Shi'ite pilgrims killed in bomb blast

BAGHDAD, Jan 30 (Reuters) Eight Shi'ite pilgrims marking the climax of the annual Ashura religious ceremony were killed today in an explosion as they walked in procession through a street in a town northeast of Baghdad, police said.

Police said it was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, which also wounded 30 people. The town of Khanaqin is near the Iranian border and is ethnically and religiously mixed, with a population of Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Shi'ites.

The focus of Ashura is the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala south of Baghdad, where an estimated 2 million pilgrims have gathered to mourn the death in battle of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson there 1,300 years ago. Shi'ites in other towns also mark the occasion.

There have been no reports of violence in Kerbala. About 11,000 police and soldiers have been deployed to guard against any attack by Sunni insurgents, who have targeted the event, the highpoint of the Shi'ite religious calendar, in the past.

This year's Ashura ceremony takes place amid heightened sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. Tens of thousands have died in tit-for-tat shootings and bombings since the bombing of the Shi'ite mosque in Samarra last February.

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