24 killed in bomb blasts near Shiite shrine

Two bombs exploded in a market near a highly revered Shiite shrine in Najaf, Iraq, today, killing at least 24 people and injuring 30.

The bombs went off near the Imam Ali mosque, which contains the tomb of Prophet Mohammed’s son-in-law, Ali, and is one of the world’s most sacred shrines for Shiites.

At least 24 deaths and 30 injuries were recorded, said Dr Isa Mohammed at the morgue of Al-Hakim hospital in Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad. The number of casualties was rising, he said.

Najaf and its twin city of Kufa, a stronghold of radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, are tightly controlled by Shiite guards and police to prevent attacks by Sunnis. The two communities have been embroiled in tit-for-tat attacks that many fear could lead Iraq to civil war.

The last major attack in the twin cities occurred on July 18 when a suicide car bomber detonated explosives in a crowd of labourers gathered across the street from another major Shiite shrine in Kufa, killing at least 53 people and wounding 105.