A huge explosion on Thursday rocked the centre of the Iraqi city of Karbala, 100km south of Baghdad, killing at least 42 civilians and injuring dozens of others, an Iraqi police source said.
The source said the death toll is expected to climb following the massive blast that ravaged a number of shops and hotels in the area.
It was not yet clear whether the blast was caused by a remote-controlled car bomb or by suicide bombers, the source added.
Karbala’s governor, Aqeel al-Khazraji, said 44 were killed and 48 injured.
Pools of blood could be seen at the blast site, and television images showed men ferrying the wounded in push carts. The explosion appeared to have been set off about 30m from one of Shi’ite Islam’s holiest shrines in a busy pedestrian area surrounded by shops.
Haydar al-Baghdadi, deputy to Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, described the explosion as a ”cowardly act behind which lies members of the defunct Ba’ath party and extremist groups”.
In a press statement, al-Baghdadi called on security authorities to ”step up their operations to track down the terrorists”.
Karbala has been relatively free of violence since December 2004, when seven people were killed and 31 wounded in an attack. In March of that year, coordinated attacks from suicide bombers and preset explosions on Karbala’s holy sites killed more than 100. — Sapa-DPA, Sapa-AP