Saturday, April 14, 2007
Suicide bombs in Karbala, Baghdad
Security
(Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed at least 40 people and wounded 128 at a crowded bus station near a major Shi'ite shrine in the Iraqi holy city of Kerbala on Saturday, police and hospital sources said. In Baghdad, police said a suicide car bomber detonated his device before a checkpoint at the southern Jadriyah bridge, killing 10 people, wounding 15 and burning several cars in the second major attack on a bridge in the capital in the past two days.
Saturday's violence came a day after leaders from across Iraq's sectarian divide pleaded for unity as they gathered under high security at a special session of parliament to condemn a suicide bombing that tore through the building on Thursday.
A police source put the death toll in Kerbala, 110 km (70 miles) southwest of Baghdad, at 65. But Khaled al-Rubaie, media director of al-Husseini hospital in Kerbala, said 41 people had been killed and 128 wounded, many of them women and children. Salim Katham, media director of Kerbala's health directorate, said 32 people were killed and 58 wounded. The attack occurred near a crowded market and some 200 meters from the Imam Hussein shrine, where the grandson of Islam's Prophet Mohammad is buried -- one of the most important sites for Shi'ites.
Saturday's violence came a day after leaders from across Iraq's sectarian divide pleaded for unity as they gathered under high security at a special session of parliament to condemn a suicide bombing that tore through the building on Thursday.
A police source put the death toll in Kerbala, 110 km (70 miles) southwest of Baghdad, at 65. But Khaled al-Rubaie, media director of al-Husseini hospital in Kerbala, said 41 people had been killed and 128 wounded, many of them women and children. Salim Katham, media director of Kerbala's health directorate, said 32 people were killed and 58 wounded. The attack occurred near a crowded market and some 200 meters from the Imam Hussein shrine, where the grandson of Islam's Prophet Mohammad is buried -- one of the most important sites for Shi'ites.
Labels: car bomb, Jadriyah bridge, Kerbala
