Suicide attacker loads van with labourers then blows it up

A SUICIDE car bomber detonated explosives in a crowd of labourers gathered across the street from a major Shi’ite shrine in southern Iraq yesterday, killing at least 53 people and wounding 105.

The attacker drove a minivan to where Shi’ite labourers gather daily to look for work in Kufa, 100 miles south of Baghdad. He offered them jobs, loaded the minivan with volunteers and then detonated the vehicle, Najaf Governor Asaad Abu Kalal said.

The blast occurred across the street from Kufa’s gold-domed mosque.