Kirkuk bombing

In Kirkuk, Iraqi officials said two suicide attacks killed at least 22 people and wounded 80 more on Monday during a Kurdish rally in the northern city.

Police and hospital officials said the attacks took place as demonstrators had gathered to protest against a draft provincial elections law that is being debated in parliament.

Security forces in the oil-rich city managed to dismantle a third bomb, in a car, which was about to explode near the protesters,

Kurdish objections over a proposed power-sharing formula on the provincial council in Kirkuk have blocked the law from being passed.

Kirkuk is in an oil-rich area and many Kurds consider it to be part of their historical land.

The area is home to Kurds, Turkomen, Arabs and smaller groups.

Pilgrims shot dead

Monday's violence in Baghdad followed the deaths of seven Shia pilgrims in the city's south the previous day as they were making their way to the Kadhimiya shrine on foot.

Iraq has said it expected many more people to attend this year's pilgrimage, which marks the death of one of Shia Islam's 12 Imams, because of improved security.

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

Women have carried out more than 20 suicide attacks in Iraq this year, particularly in northwestern Diyala province.

Al-Qaeda has often targeted Shia pilgrims taking part in religious events in Iraq. It considers Shia Islam - the majority Muslim denomination in Iraq - heretical.

Other Shia religious events in recent months have passed relatively peacefully in Iraq.

The Kadhimiya 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.