BAGHDAD, July 18 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle among a group of construction workers in a Shiite mosque in Kufa City in southern Iraq on Tuesday, killing up to 45 people and wounding 65 others, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.  

    "A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle at about 7:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) near the holy Shiite mosque of Kufa,where dozens of construction workers gathered to wait for daily work," the source said.

    The source said that ambulances and Iraqi security forces rushed to the scene to evacuate the victims.

    Kufa, some 150 km south of Baghdad, is a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

    Violence and sectarian strife have persisted despite the formation of a new unity government in the war-torn country in late May.  Enditem