A suicide bomber pulled his van into a busy market today, lured labourers with job offers and blew himself up, killing scores in one of the worst attacks in Iraq since the new government was installed in April.
The blast in the Shia city of Kufa killed 59 people and sparked clashes between police and angry protesters, dealing a fresh blow to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's efforts to promote national reconciliation and avoid a slide towards civil war.
An Iraqi man holds up clothes of victims of an explosion in Kufa. REUTERS/Ali Abu Shish
Maliki, a Shia who has offered dialogue with some Sunni insurgents, pledged to "hunt down and punish" those responsible. The largest political party of the minority Sunni community urged Iraqis to "recover their senses before Iraq descends into the abyss". Hospital sources said 132 were wounded.
Police at the scene were pelted with rocks by angry crowds, many of whom demanded that militias loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr take over security in Kufa, near the holy city of Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad.
The explosion, some 50-100 metres from the gold-domed Shia shrine of Kufa, tore through the van shortly after it had pulled out of the busy market with a group of labourers.
"A man driving a Kia van with an Iraqi accent came and said: 'I need labourers'. After the labourers got on and packed the vehicle he exploded the car," said witness Nasir Faisal.
"Four of my cousins were killed. They were standing beside the van. Their bodies were scattered far apart by the blast."
After the blast, protesters gathered around the blackened mangle of vehicles. Blood-stained clothes lay amid the debris."We want the Mehdi Army to protect us. We want Moqtada's army to protect us," a woman dressed in a black abaya screamed.
Others chanted to the police: "You are traitors!" "You are not doing your job!" Police then fired automatic rifles into the air to disperse the crowds and confused scenes ensued. Some civilians, who appeared to be Sadr followers, were seen carrying weapons.
The blast was one of the bloodiest since Maliki's national unity government of Shia, Sunnis and Kurds took office on pledges to end sectarian bloodshed that has killed thousands.