No, wait, scratch that — it was actually a female Sunni suicide bomber.
“Female bomber kills 32 on Iraqi pilgrimage route,” by Wisam Mohammed and Sami al-Jumaili for Reuters, February 13 (thanks to James):
KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) — A female suicide bomber killed 32 people and wounded 84 others south of Baghdad on Friday when she blew herself up on a major Shi’ite religious pilgrimage route, police said.
The attack in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital, came a day after a bomb killed eight people in the Shi’ite holy city of Kerbala, to which hundreds of thousands of pilgrims were headed to commemorate Arbain.
The Arbain rite is one of the most important events in the Shi’ite religious calendar, and marks the end of a mourning period after the anniversary of the death in the seventh century of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Imam Hussein….
Sunni Islamist insurgents such as al Qaeda have often attacked large Shi’ite religious gatherings during the years of sectarian slaughter that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Suicide bombings are a particular hallmark of Sunni Islamist groups, some of which view Shi’ite Muslims as heretics.
The militants have increasingly used women for suicide bombings because they are less likely to be thoroughly searched by male guards, and because their voluminous robes can easily conceal vests packed with explosives and ball bearings or nails….