Baghdad, Aug 16 (IANS): Two people were killed and 71 injured, mostly Iranians, in two car accidents in Iraq on Friday as the Shiite religious ritual of Arbaeen nears, the Iraqi traffic police said.

In one accident, a bus carrying Iranian Shiite pilgrims collided with a fuel tanker in the city of Diwaniyah, some 160 km south of Baghdad, killing the Iraqi bus driver and an Iranian pilgrim while injuring another 60 Iranian pilgrims, Hussein Abdul Amir from the Iraqi traffic police told Xinhua news agency.

Abdul Amir said that 11 Iranian Shiite pilgrims were wounded in another car accident when a bus overturned on a road in Diyala province in eastern Iraq while they were heading to Karbala to observe Arbaeen.

The accidents came as tens of thousands of Iranian pilgrims were heading to the holy Shiite city of Karbala in Iraq to commemorate the Arbaeen religious ritual.

A statement by the Iraqi Interior Ministry said that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani issued directives for the traffic police to be fully alert by deploying patrols on all routes used by pilgrims and taking measures to reduce traffic accidents during the Arbaeen ritual.

Arbaeen marks the end of the 40-day mourning for Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, who was killed in the battle of Karbala in 680 A.D.