50 dead in Iraq car bomb attack

KUFA , (Iraq): At least 54 people, mostly day labourers, were killed and dozens of others wounded as a car bomb blew up on Tuesday in the centre of Iraq's Shiite shrine city of Kufa, security and medical sources said.

 At least 105 others were wounded in the attack, said Dr Mundher al-Adhari, chief health official of the southern city of Najaf, adding that most of the victims were young men.

Witnesses said a car drove up and parked in the square in front of Kufa's grand mosque, immediately attracting a crowd of people assuming it was a contractor looking for day labourers.

"A blue car pulled into the area and dozens of people surrounded the car thinking that they were looking for workers," said Nasser Kadhim, who lost his brother in the blast and was himself wounded.

"A few minutes later the explosion happened and everything was thrown into the air."

The blast was the third attack with a heavy death toll in as many days, all of them apparently motivated by sectarian divisions. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned the latest bombing and vowed to punish the perpetrators.