The attacks on the pilgrims inBaghdad and other regions took place while Muslim people were on their ways to the shrine city of Karbala on Thursday. Dozens more were wounded in the attacks.

Hundreds of thousands of people make pilgrimages to Karbala, many of them on foot, during the 40 days after the annual commemoration marking the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (PBUH), the Prophet Mohammed's grandson.

The 40th day, known as Arbaeen, falls on December 23 this year.

Militants also shot dead a family of five on the same day, security officials said.

Foreign backed terrorist groups, including those linked to Al-Qaeda, frequently target Iraqi civilians to shatter the security of the country.

The throngs of pilgrims on the roads make for an easy target, and they have been hit by a series of attacks in recent days.

On Wednesday, a suicide bomber targeted Shiite pilgrims in Khales, north of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 10.

On Tuesday, two attacks against pilgrims in and near Baghdad killed at least eight people, and on Monday two car bombs targeting pilgrims south of the capital killed at least 24 people.

Also on Thursday, militants dressed in army uniforms attacked the house of an anti-Al-Qaeda militiaman in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, killing him, his wife and their three children.

Violence in Iraq has surged this year under support of some foreign regimes aimed at increasing brutal sectarian conflict in the war-hit country.

NJF/NJF