Three attacks across Iraq have killed 39 pilgrims as hundreds of thousands of Shias mark the religious festival of Ashura.
23 people died when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque in Dur Mandali, close to the town of Bala Druz in the Diyala province. Another 57 were wounded.
In another attack, 12 Kurdish Shias were killed when a bomb hidden in a roadside bin exploded as they were heading to a local religious hall in the town of Khanaqin, near the Iranian border.
Elsewhere, gunmen opened fire on Shia pilgrims in southern Baghdad, killing four and wounding six.
Shia Muslims, who have been observing their annual mourning ritual for the past ten days, have become a regular target of attacks allegedly by Sunni extremists during what is the holiest date on the Shia calendar.
In 2004, 170 people were killed in attacks in Baghdad and Kerbala and another 44 died in a single incident in Kerbala in 2005.
Tens of thousands have died in tit-for-tat shootings and bombings since the bombing of the al-Askari mosque in Samarra last February.
Today’s ceremonies marked the climax of the ceremony, which mourns the death in battle of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson there 1,300 years ago.
To express guilt and remorse for not saving Imam Hussein, hundreds of men were seen flaying themselves with chains or slicing the front of their scalps with swords and knives.
