Baghdad, Feb 3 (Inditop.com) At least 20 people were killed and 117 injured Wednesday when a suicide bomber exploded his vehicle near a gathering of pilgrims in Karbala, some 110 km southwest of Baghdad.

“The latest reports said that 20 Shiite pilgrims were killed and 117 others were wounded by the massive bombing in Karbala,” an interior ministry source said.

The bomber, driving a minibus, struck the Shiite crowd assembled at the eastern entrance of Karbala for a religious ritual, Xinhua quoted the unnamed source as saying.

The attack has come as yet another setback for the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country just a few weeks before the March general elections.