A bombing attack victim receives treatment at a hospital in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, July 28, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

The apparently coordinated blasts in Baghdad shattered a period of relative calm in the city and took place despite heavy security for the annual pilgrimage to the Kadhamiya shrine.

The US military said it was possible three suicide bombers had carried out the attacks in the capital but did not specify if they were women. It put the death toll at 20.

Al-Qaida has increasingly used women to carry out suicide attacks because they can often evade the more stringent security checks applied to men. Women have carried out more than 20 suicide attacks in Iraq this year.

Television pictures showed police, firemen and other workers washing blood and clearing debris from the street at the scene of one of the blasts in Baghdad. A witness saw workers collecting pieces of flesh and body parts.

The blasts occurred in central Baghdad, an area many pilgrims pass through on their way to the shrine.

Police on Sunday also said gunmen killed seven pilgrims in southern Baghdad as they made their way to the shrine, but some officials yesterday questioned this account, saying they were not aware of the incident.

In Kirkuk, Kurdish television footage showed thousands of people demonstrating against Iraq's provincial elections law when an explosion prompted a rush for cover. A witness said there was a stampede as police fired into the air.