Suicide car bombing kills 57
A suicide car bomber has killed 57 people and wounded nearly 160 near one of Iraq's most revered Shia Muslim shrines in the city of Kerbala.
The blast occurred at a checkpoint on an approach to the golden-domed al-Abbas shrine, situated among shops and restaurants in the holy city.
Eyewitnesses said the car entered the checkpoint for the shrine and blew up in the midst of a crowd of people. Shops were destroyed and dozens of cars caught fire.
Local hospitals had to send some of the wounded to nearby cities because they were unable to cope.
The attack bore the hallmarks of Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda, which US and Iraqi officials accuse of trying to tip Iraq into full-scale civil war between the majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs, once dominant under Saddam Hussein.
© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
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