Baghdad suicide car bomb blast toll rises to eight

A suicide car bomb exploded near a revered shrine in the holy Shiite city of Karbala today, killing eight people and wounding 36, police said, in an apparent attempt by Sunni Arab insurgents to cause another spike in Iraq’s sectarian violence.

The golden dome and minarets of the Al-Abbas shrine didn’t appear to be damaged in video footage shown on Iraqi state TV, but the powerful blast set many parked cars on fire in a nearby street, and two Iraqi men with bloody faces could be seen running through heavy black smoke past the body of another victim of the attack.