A suicide bomber disguised as a policeman has killed at least 53 people and wounded dozens in an attack on Shia Muslim pilgrims at a checkpoint in southern Iraq.
The bombing at the end of Arbain, one of the main religious observances in the Shia calendar, was the worst such incident this year, amid a political crisis and renewed fears of a resurgence of sectarian violence.
"A terrorist wearing a police uniform and carrying fake police ID managed to reach a police checkpoint and blew himself up among police and pilgrims," said a police official at the scene of the bombing in Basra.
The pilgrims had been on their way to a major Shia mosque to the west of Basra, police said.
Security forces sealed off the main hospital in Basra, fearing further attacks as soldiers, police and civilians rushed blood-covered victims to the hospital.
Some of the wounded were but into the back of cars. Hundreds of crying relatives packed into the city morgue searching for casualties.
One woman lay on the floor screaming for her dead son and covering her head with dust from the ground in a traditional expression of grief.
Riyadh Abdul-Ameer, director of the Basra health office, told Reuters the blast killed 53 people, with another 130 wounded.
