Iraq pilgrims head home, suicide bomber strikes

By Sami al-Jumaili and Wisam Mohammed

BAGHDAD/KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims streamed home from Iraq's shrine city of Kerbala on Sunday at the end of an annual holy rite that passed without the factional violence that marred it last year.

But a major suicide bomb attack on U.S.-backed neighborhood guards in a Sunni Arab area of northern Baghdad served as a reminder of entrenched violence in the country.

The bomber rode on a bicycle to a checkpoint manned by the guards in the Adhamiya neighborhood and detonated an explosive vest, killing 15 people and wounding 29. Among the dead was a leader of the guards in the area, Faruq Abu Omar.

Police had earlier said the bomber rode a motorcycle.

"I carried my nephew in my arms to the hospital. He was alive until we reached the hospital and his blood stained my clothes," Abu Omar's uncle, Ahmed Abu Uday, told Reuters by telephone, his voice breaking with tears.

The guards, known as "Sons of Iraq", are paid by U.S. forces to protect neighborhoods in areas where the local tribes have turned against al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants. The militants frequently strike their checkpoints.

"What happened is what we feared would happen, because this area was the stronghold of al Qaeda in Adhamiya. We killed them, we captured them. We destroyed them. And we expected they would seek revenge," said Abu Uday.

AL QAEDA STILL ABLE TO ATTACK

Iraq has become far less violent over the past year, but U.S. and Iraqi forces say al Qaeda retains the ability to carry out car bombings and suicide attacks.

Sunni militants are suspected of being behind strikes which killed more than 30 pilgrims heading to the Shi'ite Sha'abiniya rite, including a suicide bombing on Thursday in which 19 died.

But the ritual itself in Kerbala was peaceful, authorities said. Last year Shi'ite militia and police clashed during the pilgrimage, leading to major gun battles in Kerbala's streets.

At the conclusion of the rite overnight, believers crowded the banks of a river that flows into the Euphrates, floating lit candles on the water under a full moon.

Pilgrims then began to pack into buses to leave Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, which was under the tight watch this week of some 40,000 Iraqi police and soldiers backed by snipers, helicopters and bomb-sniffing dogs.

The birthday of the ninth century Imam Mohammed al-Mehdi is one of several annual pilgrimages that have evolved into shows of strength for Iraq's majority Shi'ite community since the fall of Sunni Arab dictator Saddam Hussein, who curbed such rites.

Previous pilgrimages have seen some of the highest-profile attacks of the war.