22 killed in Iraq suicide car bomb attack

At least 22 people were killed and dozens more wounded when a suicide car bomber struck the centre of a major Shiite city in southern Iraq today.

The explosion occurred at 9am local time as the streets were packed with shoppers and people on their way to work in a commercial district in Hillah, according to provincial police.

Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, has been the site of some of the deadliest bombings in Iraq, including a double suicide attack on March 6 that killed 120 people.

Yesterday, US and Iraqi forces blocked access to a town on the north-east outskirts of Baghdad where Shiite gunmen were dug in for a third day behind earthen barriers. Police issued calls for residents to leave the town, and some said they were running out of food and fuel.

The blockade of Husseiniyah came as at least 16 people died when four car bombs rocked the centre of the capital. Three of the blasts took place in one 30-minute span, as the relentless Baghdad summer sun pushed temperatures to 115 degrees.

Police, morgue and hospital officials reported a total of at least 59 people killed or found dead nationwide yesterday, and the American military announced the deaths of three soldiers and a Marine. At least 3,636 members of the US military have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The continued fighting and deaths of Iraqis and American forces in the sixth month of the American bid to calm Baghdad and the centre of the country illuminate the stubborn resistance to a political solution in Iraq, where the government and legislature appear determined to press for sectarian advantage rather than Iraqi unity.