More than 50 killed in Iraq shrine attack

A suicide car bomber detonated explosives among a crowd of labourers across the street from a major Shia shrine in southern Iraq today, killing 53 people and wounding 105.

The blast occurred about 7.30am local time across the street from the gold-domed mosque in Kufa, 100 miles south of Baghdad, said police Capt. Nafie Mohammed. The shrine marks the place where Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed, was mortally wounded.

In an interview with a Shia television station, Najaf Gov. Asaad Abu Kalal said the suicide attacker drove a minivan up to a corner where Shiite labourers gather daily to look for work. He offered them jobs, loaded the minivan with volunteers and then detonated the vehicle, Kalal said.

Kufa is a stronghold of radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose movement controls the mosque. It appeared the blast was aimed at undermining al-Sadr's position in Iraq's intensifying sectarian struggle, much of which has been blamed on al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

The blast occurred one day after gunmen killed at least 50 people in a major assault on a market in Mahmoudiya, 75 miles north of Kufa. Witnesses said the assault began with an attack on mourners at a funeral for one of al-Sadr's militiamen.

On July 6, a suicide car bomber attacked a group of Iranian pilgrims as they were descending from tour buses at another Shiite shrine in Kufa, killing 12 people and wounding 39 - most Iranians.