BAGHDAD – Suicide bombings in Iraq killed at least 36 people on Thursday, Dec. 19, in attacks targeting Shi’a pilgrims ahead of a major holy day next week, police said.

Two years after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, violence is at its highest level since 2006-7, when sectarian violence killed tens of thousands of people.

The first major attack of the day came when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a funeral tent, killing at least 16 Shi’a pilgrims and wounding 31 in southern Baghdad’s mainly Sunni neighborhood of Doura, police sources said.

A former Reuters reporter, Mohanad Mohammed, and his son were among those killed in the blast, a family member said.

Another bomber set himself off near Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, amid a group of Shi’a pilgrims of the ethnic Turkmen group who were coming from Kirkuk in the north, killing nine, medics and security sources said.

A third suicide bomb went off in Latifiya, killing another 11 people.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which were the latest in a series targeting civilians and government buildings.

The attacks have killed scores of people just days before Arbaeen, which commemorates the death of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Hussein, a major figure in Shi’a Islam.

Many Shi’a pilgrims are making their way on foot to the city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, ahead of the ritual.