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Bomb blast in Iraqi bus station kills at least 56

A car bomb blasted through a busy bus station near one of Iraq's holiest shrines yesterday, killing at least 56 people, police and hospital officials said.

Separately, a suicide car bomb killed 10 people on a major bridge in downtown Baghdad -- the second attack on a span over the Tigris river this week, police said. The Jadriyah bridge suffered little damage.

The bus station bombing occurred about 200m from the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, where the grandson of Islam's Prophet Mohammed is buried -- one of the most important sites for Shiites.

State television aired footage from the scene, in which rescue workers could be seen evacuating casualties. The charred body of a child lay motionless on a stretcher.

At least six children were among the dead, an official at al-Hussein Hospital said. Iranian and Pakistani pilgrims were also among the casualties, he said, on condition of anonymity.

"I want my father. Where is my father?" cried out 11-year-old Sajad Kadhim as he lay on the grounds of the hospital, where doctors were treating his burns.

"All I remember was we were shopping. My father was holding my hand and suddenly there was a big explosion. I don't know where my father is. I want my father," the boy cried.

A 72-year-old woman who called herself Um Hussein ran through the hospital corridors looking for her daughter and six-year-old grandson.

"They were near the bomb. They went to buy something for our lunch," she said, pounding her head in grief. "What did they do to deserve this? To whom should I complain? There is no government to protect us."

Hundreds of people swarmed around ambulances, crying out and pounding their chests. Police fired into the air to disperse crowds and clear roads for emergency vehicles, but angry mobs attacked them and set two police vehicles on fire.

Rioters surrounded the Karbala governor's office and demanded his and provincial council members' resignations -- blaming them for lax security. Mobs threw stones at the governor's office and set fire to the building.

A curfew was imposed in the area, and the city's entrances were sealed off while police and soldiers patrolled the streets.

More than 70 people were also wounded in the attack, another official at al-Hussein Hospital on the same condition of anonymity.

In Baghdad, at least 15 people were wounded in the Jadriyah bridge bombing -- the second such attack this week on infrastructure connecting the Iraqi capital's two sides.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, police said four would-be suicide attackers were killed yesterday when one of them detonated his explosives belt prematurely. No civilians were hurt, police said.
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