A suicide bomber disguised as a policeman killed at least 50 people and wounded scores in an attack on Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims at a checkpoint in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Saturday, police said.
The attack at the end of Arbain, one of the main religious observances on the Shi'ite calendar, came as a political crisis in the Shi'ite-led government renewed fears of a return to sectarian violence in the country.
"A terrorist wearing a police uniform and carrying fake police I.D. managed to reach a police checkpoint and blew himself up among police and pilgrims," said a police official at the scene of the bombing.
The pilgrims had been on their way to a major Shi'ite mosque to the west of Basra, police said.
Security forces sealed off the main hospital in Basra, fearing further attacks. Weeping relatives gathered at the hospital as soldiers, police and civilians rushed blood-covered victims there. Some of the wounded were stuffed into car trunks.
A provincial health official who asked not to be named put the toll at 50 dead and 90 wounded.
