Female bomber kills dozens near sacred site

A female suicide bomber attacked a group of Shia worshippers near a mosque in Karbala today, killing at least 39 people and wounding 54, officials said.

The worshippers were gathered at a sacred historical site about a kilometer (half a mile) from the Imam Hussein shrine, one of the holiest sites for Shias.

Karim Khazim, the city's chief health official, said the 39 dead included seven Iranians.

Police said the attacker was a woman but provided no other immediate details. Karbala is located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad.

The area around the twin golden dome mosques was closed by police and all road leading to the sites were blocked. The site includes tombs of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson who was killed in a seventh century battle, and his half-brother, also a Shia saint.

Ali Hassan, 30, a clothing merchant who was injured in the blast, said he was standing near his stall "when I heard a big explosion and I felt strong fire throwing me on the air."

"The only thing I know is there was a big explosion and I saw bodies flying in the air," said Hassan Khazim, 36, who was wounded in the face. "All the tight security measures designed to protect us were in vain."

Separately, a roadside bomb killed two US soldiers today as they were clearing a route north of Baghdad, the military said.

The violence came as US Vice President Dick Cheney and Arizona Sen. John McCain made overlapping visits to the capital, touting recent security gains and vowing to uphold a long-term military commitment to the country so long as al-Qa'ida is not defeated.

Explosions also struck earlier today not far from Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, shortly after Cheney arrived. Helicopter gunships circled central Baghdad, but no other details were immediately available on the cause of the explosions.

McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate for president who has linked his political future to military success in Iraq, met Monday with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shortly before the Iraqi leader began separate talks with Cheney.

Al-Maliki said he and the vice president discussed ongoing negotiations over a long-term security agreement between the two countries that would replace the U.N. mandate for foreign troops set to expire at the end of the year.

"This visit is very important. It is about the nature of the relations between the two countries, the future of those relations and the agreement in this respect," the prime minister told reporters. "We also discussed the security in Iraq, the development of the economy and reconstruction and terrorism."

McCain stressed it was important to maintain the US commitment in Iraq, where a US-Iraq military operation is under way to clear al-Qa'ida from its last urban stronghold of Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

"We recognize that al-Qa'ida is on the run, but they are not defeated," McCain said after meeting al-Maliki. "Al-Qa'ida continues to pose a great threat to the security and very existence of Iraq as a democracy. So we know there's still a lot more of work to be done."

McCain, who arrived in Iraq yesterday, told reporters that he also discussed with the Shia leader the need for progress on political reforms, including laws on holding provincial elections and the equitable distribution of Iraq's oil riches.

Cheney arrived at Baghdad International Airport, then flew by helicopter for talks with US and Iraqi officials. It is Cheney's third vice presidential trip to Iraq, where 160,000 American troops are deployed and the US death toll is nearing 4,000.

Violence has dropped throughout the capital with an influx of some 30,000 additional US soldiers as well as a Sunni revolt against al-Qa'ida and a cease-fire by radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

The US military has said attacks have fallen by about 60 per cent since last February.

McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was accompanied by Sens. Joe Lieberman, an independent, and Republican Lindsey Graham, two top supporters of his presidential ambitions. The week-long trip will take McCain to Israel, Britain and France.

In other violence today, police said they found the bodies of three members of a US-allied group fighting al-Qa'ida in Udaim, 112 kilometers (70 miles) north of Baghdad. Members of the mostly Sunni groups have been increasingly targeted by suspected al-Qaida members seeking to derail the recent security gains.

A parked car bomb in Baghdad's central Karradah neighborhood also killed three civilian bystanders and wounded nine, police said, while a separate roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad killed one and wounded three others.