BAGHDAD — As Shiite Muslim pilgrims made their way to a shrine in Baghdad on Sunday to mark one of the sect's most important holidays, a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a crowded checkpoint, killing as many as 38 people and wounding 72, police said.
It was one of the capital's worst attacks in months and the second major bombing in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiya in nine days. On Dec. 27, a minibus exploded, killing 24 people.
Violence in Iraq has declined significantly, but suicide attacks remain a threat. U.S. military officials have warned that January could be particularly violent, with provincial elections Jan. 31. Insurgents also might try to assert themselves as the U.S. hands over military control to Iraqis. Withdrawal of all American troops is planned by the end of 2011.
On Sunday, witnesses described a chaotic scene of dozens of dead and injured men, women and children, most of them on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Musa al Kadhim, considered the seventh imam of the Shiite sect. Thousands of pilgrims are visiting the holy site to mark Ashura, the anniversary of the battlefield death in 680 of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the prophet Muhammad.
Ashura, which falls on Wednesday this year, is a defining event in the Shiite faith. Militants have targeted Kadhimiya repeatedly because of its significance to Iraq's Shiite majority.
At least 17 pilgrims from Iran, which also has a Shiite majority, were among the victims Sunday, police said.
"I saw the people lying on the ground," said Assad, who declined to give his last name. "They were like sheep more than human. Is that acceptable? Oh, my God."
Heider abu Hussein, 32, who owns a bookstore near the site, said the bomber exploded from the middle of a crowd, sending people and body parts flying everywhere.
"Can anyone help us? Can anyone help us?" Hussein's friend Mohammed yelled into the crowd. "We need help here!"
The friends began carrying people to safety. Hussein spotted an infant, maybe 2 months old, lying on the ground and crying.
"Then I saw his mother," Hussein said. "She was moving in pain. She started to point at me. She couldn't speak. In her gesture, she was telling me to give her baby back. Then she collapsed. I thought she was dead."
The baby began vomiting blood and was bleeding from the stomach, where he had been struck by shrapnel. At a hospital, the friends learned that the baby's mother was alive but seriously injured.
