A female suicide bomber has attacked Shia worshippers in the city of Karbala, killing at least 43 people on the street leading to one of Iraq's most revered mosques.

 

An Iraqi police officer and a witness said that Monday's bombing was carried out by a woman.

 

But a US statement said the identity of the bomber remained unknown.

Brigadier-General Raed Shakir Jawdat, Karbala's police chief, said 43 people were killed and 73 wounded.

 

He said it was not a suicide attack, but that a bomb had been planted in the area.

But the US military described the attack as a suicide operation and put the casualty toll at 40 Iraqis killed and 65 wounded.

 

The Karbala blast was the deadliest in a series of attacks that left scores of Iraqis dead, including six youths killed when mortar rounds hit a soccer field in eastern Baghdad.

 

 

The bomber struck after the worshippers had gathered at a sacred historical site about half a mile from the golden domed shrine of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who was killed in a seventh-century battle.

 

Police later closed the area around the twin golden dome mosques and blocked all roads leading to the sites.

 

Karim Khazim, the city's chief health official, said seven of those killed were Iranian pilgrims who had travelled to the holy site.