The woman's attack took place in the Iskandariya district south of Baghdad where pilgrims were traveling to Karbala for a festival.

The same day, coalition troops in Baghdad killed a man during a raid targeting al Qaeda in Iraq, the US military said.

The incident occurred during an operation that led to the capture of an al Qaeda suspect “believed to conduct financial transactions for AQI and its car-bombing networks,” the US military said.

Troops killed the man when he “refused to comply with their instructions and made threatening movements toward them”. Two other people were detained.

Earlier on August 13, a US soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in northwest Baghdad, military officials said.

As many as 4,141 US service members have been killed sp far since the Iraq war began in March 2003.