At least 44 people were killed in Iraq on Thursday amid attacks against worshippers marking the Shia Islam holy day of Ashura.

A suicide bomber, disguised in police uniform, struck a Shiite-majority area in Diyala Province, north of Baghdad, killing 32 people and wounding 80.

Earlier, coordinated blasts in Hafriyah south of the capital killed nine people, while twin bombings in the northern oil city of Kirkuk wounded five.

Three more people died in violence near Baghdad and in Diyala’s provincial capital Baquba.

Ashura commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, at the hands of soldiers of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD. An estimated two million faithful gathered in Karbala, site of Hussein’s death and his mausoleum.

In the first half of November at least 223 people have been killed and 552 wounded.

(Featured Photo: Worshippers in Karbala on Thursday — AFP)