Three bombers dressed as women have killed at least 70 people at a Shia mosque in Baghdad, police say.

The bombers were dressed as women in black robes when they attacked on Friday, two inside the mosque and one just outside, a police official said.

Some police sources said the bombers were women; others said they were a woman and two men dressed as women.

The bombing also wounded 158 people.

The mosque complex belongs to the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the most powerful group inside Iraq's ruling Shia alliance.

The attack came a day after a car bomb exploded in Najaf, killing at least 13 people.

A member of the Baghdad city council appealed to Iraqis on state television to give blood.

Also in Iraq on Friday a Shia tailor was shot dead by armed men inside his shop in the al-Zab area about 70km (40 miles) southwest of the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police said.

US soldiers killed

The US military reported that one of its soldiers had been killed on Thursday when his patrol was hit by a roadside bomb near town of Baiji, 180km north of Baghdad.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Iraqi Police Commando inspects the damage around the Baratha mosque in Baghdad. (AFP)