At least 20 people were killed and 46 wounded when a car bomb exploded on Wednesday in the Shi’ite town of Musayyib, 55km south of the Iraqi capital, security sources said.
The attack was carried out using a minibus packed with explosives that blew up at 5.20pm local time outside a Shi’ite mosque, said police Captain Ahmed Naimi in the nearby provincial capital of Hilla.
The car bomb was set off at sundown at the same place where at least 83 people were killed and 153 injured when a suicide bomber set off a massive fireball on July 16 as worshippers gathered for prayers.
The bomber in that attack blew himself up next to a liquefied-gas tanker, and the blast torched about 20 cars, destroyed about 40 shops and set nearby buildings on fire.
On Monday, a car bomb killed 18 people in the normally quiet southern port city of Basra, ripping through a market packed with shoppers ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. — Sapa-AFP