Iran on Thursday strongly condemned a bombing that reportedly killed and wounded Iranian pilgrims in central Iraq earlier in the day, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"We strongly condemn the continued terrorist acts in Iraq and the demonic terrorist move this morning," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi was quoted as saying.

"Unfortunately, during today's terrorist attack, in addition to Iraqi pilgrims, a number of Iranians who were there on pilgrimage were also killed and wounded," Asefi added.

Asefi also urged the Iraqi government to "take firm steps to identify, detain and punish those responsible for the terrorist act and safeguard the security of visiting pilgrims."

The spokesman also criticized the foreign occupation troops in Iraq, saying that they were "incompetent to promote security in Iraq."

On Thursday morning, a bomb exploded near a mosque in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Karbala, which is often visited by Iranian pilgrims. Over 50 people were killed in the blast.

IRNA quoted Karbala's police chief Colonel Abdul Razaq Taai as saying that four Iranian nationals were killed and 13 others injured in the bombing.

Source: Xinhua