Bomb targets Iraq shrine pilgrims

The attacker reportedly targeted buses carrying Iranian pilgrims

At least 12 people have been killed and about 40 others wounded in a car bombing at a Shia shrine in the Iraqi city of Kufa, Iraqi police say.

Several of the victims are reported to be pilgrims from Iran.

The attack happened at about 0715 (0315 GMT) near the shrine of Maitham al-Tamar, some 160km (100 miles) south of Baghdad.

It is the latest in a wave of bombings at religious sites in Iraq, despite attempts to crack down on insurgents.

Sectarian hallmarks

Police said the bomb blew up two buses carrying the pilgrims. Witnesses said the vehicles were burnt out by the explosion.

Three women, dressed in distinctively Iranian clothing, lay dead, while smoke rose from the charred remains of the bomber's car, Reuters news agency reported.

A number of children were also caught up in the blast, reports say.

Najaf deputy Governor Abdul-Hussein Attan, who visited the scene of the explosion, said the attack targeted "the stability and reconstruction of Najaf".

"This attack will not stop the reconstruction nor the coming of pilgrims," the Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.

The BBC's Adam Brookes in Baghdad says this bears all the hallmarks of a sectarian attack by Sunni Muslim extremists seeking to provoke Iraq's Shia Muslims.

He says attacks on Shia holy places like this one have one very clear effect - they inflame the situation and render the Iraqi government's plan for national reconciliation ever harder to bring about.

The blast comes a day after the US military warned that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the successor to al-Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was likely to carry out more car bombings.