KARBALA: A suicide car bomber yesterday killed 60 people and wounded 170 near one of Iraq's most revered Shi'ite shrines yesterday, in an attack likely to inflame sectarian tensions.
Twenty-seven bodies were found in different parts of Baquba yesterday. Police said 15 bodies, handcuffed and with gunshot wounds to the head, were discovered in a field. Another 12 were found in other parts of the city.
Nine more US troopers were, meanwhile, killed during combat operations in western Anbar province, the US military said.
Four were killed by roadside bombs in separate attacks south and southeast of Baghdad, the military said. Three soldiers and two Marines were killed on Friday in combat in western Anbar Province, it said.
They were among 116 killed across the country in a new day of carnage yesterday.
The suicide car blast occurred at a checkpoint on an approach to the golden-domed Al Abbas shrine, situated among shops and restaurants in the holy city of Karbala. The area was crowded at the time.
"Many of the wounded are women and children," said Salim Kadhim, spokesman for the Karbala health department as the wards of city hospitals flooded with scorched and mutilated survivors.
"Most of the dead are charred beyond recognition, but we have managed to identify a two-year-old Iranian girl who was killed," Kadhim said, adding that among the wounded there were 20 women.
"A car entered the checkpoint for the shrine and blew up in the midst of a crowd of people. Shops have been destroyed, a dozen cars caught fire," said a nearby shop owner.
"Once again the dark forces and terrorists have targeted the city of Karbala," Abdulaal Al Yasiry, head of the Karbala Provincial Council, told state Iraqiya television.
"Security forces do not have adequate training ... The terrorists have started to come up with creative attacks so that it's impossible for police to uncover them."
Karbala is one of Iraq's best protected cities because of its holy status and major bombings do not happen often. A suicide car bomber killed 40 people at a crowded bus station in the same area on April 14.
Hussain Mahdi, another resident, asked: "Do the officials of Karbala not see what happens in the city every Saturday? Karbala has become unsafe because of the weakness of the security forces, because politicians interfere in it in order to support their own loyalists. They are loyal to the parties and not to the profession."
Another witness, who saw charred remains of bodies and burned shops, demanded that a special force be sent to protect Karbala.
Karbala is a major destination for Iraq's Shi'ite majority. It also attracts pilgrims from Iran and Shi'ite communities across the Middle East and beyond. Although the shrines were not reported to have been damaged, the latest attack will stoke already raging sectarian tensions, as previous assaults on Shiite mosques have usually been blamed on Sunni extremists.
Separately, four people were killed and three others wounded when gunmen attacked a public minibus in Baghdad's mixed Sunni and Shi'ite district of Zafaraniyah, a security official said.
Another 16 died in separate attacks around Iraq, while police also found 18 bodies in Baghdad, an official said.
