An AFP reporter saw at least 50 bodies in and around the hospital in Karbala after blasts rocked the sacred Iraqi city as more than a million Shiites marked their holiest day of the year.
Doctors said they expected the death toll to reach 100 as more casualties flooded in.
Some 30 bodies were piled up outside the hospital and more were inside, including 17 in one room. Some were decapitated or otherwise mutilated.
More casualties, who included Iranians as well as Iraqis, were being brought in all the time on stretchers, wrapped in blankets and dripping blood, in ambulances or private cars, followed by relatives.
**PHOTO CAPTION***
A Red Crescent ambulance arrives at the scene of the explosions, which rocked the holy city of Karbala. (AFP/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)