SAMARRA, Iraq, (AP) — A car bomb ripped through a Shiite Muslim procession just north of Baghdad on Thursday killing at least six worshippers, a police officer said.

Forty others were wounded in the attack, which struck on the outskirts of the mostly Shiite town of Dujail at 1:30 pm (1030 GMT), a police major said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Among the dead and injured were women and children, the officer said, without giving further details.

The pilgrims were walking to the city of Samarra to commemorate the death of the 11th imam, Hassan al-Askari, at his gold-domed shrine in the majority-Sunni city. The commemoration falls this year on Saturday.

Dujail lies around 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Baghdad in Saleheddin province, while Samarra lies 60 kilometres further north.

Tens of thousands of people died in violence sparked by the destruction of the Askari shrine’s gold dome five years ago by alleged Al-Qaeda Sunni extremists.

The mosque itself was built in 944, and the golden dome was added in 1905.