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Car blast near Karbala shrine

Attacker targets Shia pilgrims

BAGHDAD: A car bomb blasted through a busy bus station near one of Iraq's holiest shrines on Saturday, killing at least 37 persons, police and hospital officials said. Other reports put the death toll as high as 56.

Separately, a suicide car bomb killed 10 persons on a major bridge in downtown Baghdad — the second attack on a span over the Tigris river this week, police said. The Jadriyah bridge suffered little damage.

The bus station bombing occurred about 200 metres from the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, where the grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad is buried — one of the most important sites for Shias.

A spokesman for Karbala police said 37 civilians were killed and 168 wounded. Earlier, hospital officials said at least 56 persons had been killed.

The wounded were being treated in a makeshift emergency room set up in tents near the blast site.

A forest of racks held intravenous bags. Through it, a man guided a wooden cart stacked high with body parts. The charred body of a child lay motionless on a stretcher.

At least 16 children were among the dead. Iranian and Pakistani pilgrims were also among the casualties, said an official at Al-Hussein Hospital.

Hundreds of people swarmed around ambulances, crying out and pounding their chests.

Police fired into the air to disperse crowds and clear roads for emergency vehicles, but angry mobs attacked them and set two police vehicles on fire.

Rioters surrounded the Karbala Governor's office and demanded his and provincial council members' resignations — blaming them for lax security. Mobs threw stones at the Governor's office and set fire to the building.

A curfew was imposed in the area, and the city's entrances were sealed off while police and soldiers patrolled the streets.

Karbala lies 80 km south of Baghdad, and is the destination of an annual Shia pilgrimage.

In Baghdad, 10 persons were killed and 15 wounded in the Jadriyah bridge bombing — the second such attack this week on infrastructure connecting the Iraqi capital's two sides. — Agencies

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