As religious visitors from around the world thronged Iraq’s shrine city of Karbala, a car bomb killed 15 worshippers south of Baghdad

As religious visitors from around the world thronged Iraq's shrine city of Karbala, a car bomb killed 15 worshippers south of Baghdad on Thursday.
  
The attack came despite a massive security operation mounted to safeguard the millions of Muslims travelling to and from Karbala for the conclusion of Arbaeen commemorations.
  
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which struck a parking lot in the town of Musayyib used primarily for vehicles transporting pilgrims for Imam Hussein holy shrine.
  
The blast martyred 17 people and wounded 47, a police officer and a doctor said, the second deadly attack to target Musayyib in recent days, after seven people were killed on December 31.

Provincial governor Amal al-Din al-Har said some 18 million worshippers passed through the city, which lies 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, by the end of the commemorations on Thursday afternoon, many of them walking for days from across Iraq.