Baghdad : More than 40 people have died and some 100 have been wounded in bomb attacks on Shia pilgrims converging on a shrine in northern Baghdad. At least 30 died when a suicide bomber targeted a crowd walking through the predominantly Sunni Adhamiya district to the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim mosque. Eleven pilgrims were killed in other bombings across the capital. Security had been stepped up to protect the thousands of pilgrims attending a festival that culminates on Thursday. Vehicles had been banned in the mainly Shia area of Kadhimya, where the shrine is located, and 200,000 police officers and soldiers deployed along the pilgrims’ main routes. The authorities had also imposed a city-wide ban on motorbikes, bicycles and carts to help reduce the risk of vehicle-born attacks. ‘We expect the terrorist groups to launch terrorist attacks against pilgrims during the coming hours, but our contingency plans will foil their vicious acts,’ Maj-Gen Ahmed al-Saedi had said earlier.