Iraq blasts kill at least 50

Suicide bombings in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Kirkuk have killed at least 50 people and wounded scores of others.

In Baghdad, three blasts claimed the lives of at least 28 people and injured 92 as Shia pilgrims flooded into the Iraqi capital for a major religious event.

Meanwhile, an explosion in the northern city of Kirkuk killed 22 people and wounded 112.

The attack took place at a demonstration against Iraq's provincial elections law, which thousands had attended.

Initial police reports suggest all three of the Baghdad explosions were caused by female suicide bombers.

Al-Qaeda has increasingly used women to carry out suicide attacks because they can often evade the more stringent security checks applied to men.

At least a million people are expected to visit the Kadhamiya shrine in northwestern Baghdad for the pilgrimage, which peaks on Tuesday.

It is unclear if the victims were pilgrims, but the blasts were near the Karrada district in central Baghdad, an area many pilgrims would pass through on their way to the shrine.

Gunmen killed seven pilgrims in southern Baghdad on Sunday as they made their way to the shrine on foot.

Iraq had said improved security would bring many more people to this year's pilgrimage, which marks the death of one of Shia Islam's 12 imams.

Violence has fallen to four-year lows, with Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda mainly confined to the country's north after being pushed from former strongholds in Baghdad and Iraq's west.

But the US military has said it expects insurgents to attempt high-profile attacks to grab media attention and show they are still a potent force.

Security forces have deployed a team of female guards around Kadhamiya to search women. Women have carried out more than 20 suicide attacks in Iraq this year, particularly in northwestern Diyala province.

The Kadhamiya pilgrimage is one of several religious events in the Shia calendar which have attracted millions since the fall of former president Saddam Hussein. The Sunni Arab leader curbed participation in such events.

The Kadhamiya pilgrimage was marred in 2005 by one of the worst losses of life in a single incident since the 2003 US-led invasion, when rumours of a bomb attack triggered a stampede among pilgrims crossing a bridge leading to the shrine.

Up to 1,000 people were killed.

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