A parked car exploded on Saturday near a shrine in the city of Karbala as people were heading to the area for evening prayers, killing 58 people and wounding dozens, officials said. The explosion took place in a crowded commercial area near Hazrat Imam HusseinÂ’s (RA) shrine in Karbala, 80 kilometres south of Baghdad, officials said. At least 58 people were killed and 70 wounded, said Salim Kazim, the head of the Karbala health department. Separately, a suicide truck bomber attacked the home of a city police chief in Anbar province, killing nine Iraqi security forces and six civilians, the US military said on Saturday.
The Karbala blast occurred a few hundred meters from the Imam AbbasÂ’ shrine, setting several cars on fire and causing chaos in the area. The explosion took place as the streets were killed with people heading for evening prayers at Hazrat AbbasÂ’ shrine and adjacent Hazrat Imam Hussein (RA) shrine.
After the blast, angry people gathered the blast site, many of them searching frantically for missing relatives. Some began to throw stones at the police, accusing them of failing to protect the people.
Police fired weapons in the air to disperse the angry crowds.
On Saturday, the US military said a suicide truck bomber attacked the home of a city police chief the night before in Hit, a city in the western province of Anbar, killing nine Iraqi security forces and six civilians.
The police chief and his family escaped injury. The attack occurred in a city where the US military had recently reported making progress in reducing the insurgent threat.
Elsewhere, US forces detained 17 suspected insurgents in raids targeting Al Qaeda in Iraq on Saturday, the military said. Denmark also announced it is sending special forces to southern Iraq in an effort to stop stepped-up attacks against Danish and British soldiers in the area.
In Hit, Iraqi forces opened fire on the truck bomber before he reached the concrete barrier outside police chief Hamid Ibrahim al-NumrawiÂ’s home, police said. But the explosion of the vehicle, which was carrying construction materials, heavily damaged the area, they said.
The attack occurred at about 9:45 am Friday, killing nine Iraqi security forces, six civilians and wounding three policemen and 32 civilians, the US military said. The US military in Baghdad said SaturdayÂ’s raids targeting suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents netted four people in Mosul; six near Karmah, 80 kilometres west of Baghdad; two near the Syrian border; two in the Iraqi capital; and three near Balad, 80 kilometres north of Baghdad.
In Mahmoudiya, about 30 kilometres south of Baghdad, US and Iraqi forces detained eight suspected insurgents and confiscated three caches of weapons during a raid on an apartment complex on April 22, including mortars, rockets and ammunition. The weapons appeared to be new and “were stamped with recent dates and Iranian markings,” the military said.