Iraq pilgrims head home

By Sami al-Jumaili and Wisam Mohammed

BAGHDAD/KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims streamed home from Iraq's shrine city of Kerbala on Sunday at the end of an annual holy rite that passed without the factional violence that marred it last year.

But a major suicide bomb attack on U.S.-backed neighbourhood guards in a Sunni Arab area of northern Baghdad served as a reminder of entrenched violence in the country.

The bomber rode on a bicycle to a checkpoint manned by the guards in the Adhamiya neighbourhood and detonated an explosive vest, killing 15 people and wounding 29. Among the dead was a leader of the guards in the area, Faruq Abu Omar.

Police had earlier said the bomber rode a motorcycle.

"I carried my nephew in my arms to the hospital. He was alive until we reached the hospital and his blood stained my clothes," Abu Omar's uncle, Ahmed Abu Uday, told Reuters by telephone, his voice breaking with tears.

The guards, known as "Sons of Iraq", are paid by U.S. forces to protect neighbourhoods in areas where the local tribes have turned against al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants. The militants frequently strike their checkpoints.

"What happened is what we feared would happen, because this area was the stronghold of al Qaeda in Adhamiya. We killed them, we captured them. We destroyed them. And we expected they would seek revenge," said Abu Uday.

AL QAEDA STILL ABLE TO ATTACK