BAGHDAD, July 18 (Xinhua) – The death
toll of a suicide car bomb among a crowd of construction workers in the holy
Shiite city of Kufa on Tuesday rose to 57, an Interior Ministry source said.
"Our latest reports said that 57 people were killed
and 93 others wounded in the suicide car bombing," the source told Xinhua on
condition of anonymity.
Earlier, a ministry source said that 45 people were
killed and up to 65 others wounded when 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 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.
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