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.

The shrine, located in a congested area of the city, marks the place where Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed, was mortally wounded.

Kufa is a stronghold of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose movement controls the mosque. It appeared the blast was aimed at undermining Mr al-Sadr’s position in Iraq’s sectarian struggle, much of which has been blamed on his Mahdi Army militia.

The blast occurred one day after gunmen killed at least 50 people at a market in Mahmoudiya, 75 miles north of Kufa. Witnesses said the assault began with an attack on mourners at a funeral for one of Mr al-Sadr’s militiamen.

Women and children were among the dead and wounded in that assault, hospital officials said. Late Monday, police said they found 12 bodies in different parts of town — possible victims of reprisal killings.

Meanwhile, it was announced that a Jordanian responsible for slaughtering two US soldiers last month was fatally wounded in a clash with security forces.

Diyar Ismail Mahmoud, known as Abu al-Afghani, was identified as the killer of the two soldiers, National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said.

The two soldiers’ mutilated bodies were found after they were taken prisoner following a clash near Youssifiyah.

A third American was killed in the clash.

Mr Al-Rubaie did not say when Mahmoud was wounded or when he died.

Later, officials said Iraqi security forces had detained the leaders of the Omar Brigade group, a wing of al-Qaida in Iraq that had claimed to have carried many deadly attacks.

“The Omar Brigade is one of the death squads,” Mr al-Rubaie said, adding that the group was responsible for the deadly bombing in Baghdad’s eastern neighbourhood of Sadr City on July 1 that killed 66 people.