Agence France Presse

Tehran, March 3:

Iran announced today it had halted all pilgrimages to Shiite Muslim sites in Iraq, after scores of its nationals were killed or injured in bomb attacks in Karbala and amid US charges the attackers may have crossed from Iran, even as three rockets struck a major telephone exchange today, knocking out international phone connections for much of the country only days after the system was put back in service, officials said. One Iraqi worker was killed and another injured. "We have ordered pilgrims not to go to the border to cross to Iraq, even in organised convoys," Deputy Interior Minister Ali-Asghar Ahmadi told state radio.

The ministry added the travel ban would stay in place "until further notice". The IRNA news agency said 22 Iranian pilgrims were killed and around 100 others were injured in the coordinated anti-Shiite bombings in Karbala and Baghdad. An estimated 300,000 Iranians were in Iraq for Ashura, the highlight of the Shiite religious calendar.

Iraqi officials have said that a total of at least 182 people were killed and more than 550 wounded in the simultaneous attacks on the Shiite shrines. Iraqi police and US troops detained 15 people, including several possible Iranians, in connection with the suicide attacks, an official said today.