Up to 22 people were killed and some 40 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack outside a Shrite shrine in Kadhimiyah neighborhood in northern Baghdad on Sunday, an Interior Ministry source said.

A suicide bomber blew up his explosive-belt near a checkpoint at the main gate of Bab al-Qeblah of the Imam Musa al-Kadhim shrine, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Hundreds of Shiite pilgrims gather outside the shrine, three days ahead of the climax of Ashura, the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar, which is the day of mourning for the martyrdom of Hussein Ibn Ali, the grandson of Muslims' prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2009)