A car bomb killed four Iranian pilgrims near Iraq's holiest Shia shrine today, a day before a parliamentary election that Sunni Islamist insurgents have vowed to disrupt.
The blast gutted two tour buses parked near the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, which draws millions of pilgrims from Iraq and Iran each year. Salim Nema, a Najaf health official, said the attack wounded 54 people, including 17 Iraqis and 37 Iranians.
At least 49 people have been killed in the last few days of campaigning, some of them soldiers and police voting early.
Tomorrow's election is a test for Iraq's young democracy, and will help decide whether the country can avoid relapsing into violence as US forces prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's bid to win a second term on a platform of providing services and security is under challenge from former Shia partners and from a cross-sectarian, secularist group headed by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Insurgents have warned Iraqis, especially minority Sunni Arabs dominant under Saddam Hussein, to stay at home. Sunni militants say the vote will solidify power for Shia factions they see as hostile, heretical and unfit to rule.
Iran, which has close ties to many Shia and other Iraqi parties, condemned the Najaf bombing as "murderous and inhuman".
US ambassador Chris Hill said this week's attacks in Najaf, Baghdad and elsewhere would not deter Iraqi voters.
"Overall we believe the security issues are not driving the political issues; that is, the people are going to be out there voting and we believe, so far so good," he told Reuters during a stop-off at a US military base in the northern city of Mosul.
No clear winner may emerge from the election, setting the scene for
lengthy negotiations to form a coalition government and perhaps making Iraq vulnerable to renewed conflict.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all Iraqis to vote. "The peaceful conduct of these elections is of paramount importance and should contribute to national reconciliation in Iraq," he said in a statement in New York.
The election is unfolding as global investors weigh opportunities in Iraq, which has the world's third largest oil reserves but is also desperate to diversify a shattered economy.
Overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply, despite some devastating suicide bombings in Baghdad since August.
A number of groups including policemen, soldiers and prisoners voted earlier this week and these votes were being counted today.
Reuters