Blasts kill 35 at height of Iraq Shiite pilgrimage

A twin car bombing Friday tore through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims packing a highway as they walked to a holy city south of Baghdad for a major religious observance, killing at least 35 people and wounding 151 others, Iraqi officials said.

It was the third deadly bombing this wek hitting the ceremony in which hundreds of thousands of Shiites have been converging on the city of Karbala. Friday's attack struck during the culmination of the pilgrimage.

This week's violence took place as Iraqi politicians argued over an effort to bar hundreds of candidates from running in the March parliamentary elections because of suspected ties to Saddam Hussein's former regime. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday he would not allow the US ambassador to meddle in the dispute, which Washington fears could hamper Sunni-Shiite reconciliation.

Friday's attack began shortly after noon when a parked car bomb exploded just east of one of three main entrances to Karbala, two Health Ministry officials said. The explosion sent throngs of pilgrims running down the highway and straight into the path of a suicide car bomber who detonated the vehicle, they said.