The toll from a suicide bombing explosion in a town in Diyala province on Thursday evening, rose to nine dead and 13 wounded, a provincial police source said.
"Our latest report said that nine people were killed, including two policemen and 13 others injured including three policemen," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
On the day, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive-vest blew himself up at a crowd of worshippers gathering outside a Shiite mosque to commemorate the religious ritual of Ashura.
The bombing scene is located in Shifta town in central Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, about 65 km northeast of Baghdad.
Earlier, the source put the toll at eight killed and 12 injured due to the powerful blast.
The volatile province of Diyala, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border, has long been the hot bed of insurgency and sectarian violence since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The Ashura occasion, which will reach its climax on Friday, marks the death of Imam al-Hussein, Prophet Muhammad's grandson and the third holiest Imam of the 12 Imams most revered by Shiite Muslims, who was killed in a battle named Taf in Karbala in the seventh century.
Karbala province Governor Akil al-Khazali said Thursday that an estimated 2 million Iraqi and foreign pilgrims would be present in the city during the festival. About 20,000 security troops are deployed in and around Karbala, some 110 kilometers south of Baghdad.
The Iraqi government has imposed a ban on vehicles in the nine Shiite-populated provinces along with Baghdad and Diyala.
Source: Xinhua
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