A bomb planted on a minibus killed 31 people in a fish market in a mostly Shiite town south of Baghdad on Saturday, and the man blamed for parking the vehicle was cornered and killed by a mob as he walked away from the explosion.
There was no indication that the explosion, in Kufa, a Shiite town 100 miles south of the Iraqi capital, was related to the execution of Saddam Hussein. The attack came on the eve of when Iraq's Shiites begin celebrating Eid al-Adha, the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar. Shoppers had crowded the market to buy supplies for the four-day festival.
At least 58 people were wounded, said Issa Mohammed, director of the morgue in the neighboring town of Najaf.
Television footage showed hundreds of men in traditional Arab headdresses swarming around the vehicle's charred frame, toppled on its side in the street. Ambulances and fire trucks pulled up to the site, and a coffin could be seen being loaded onto the top of a car. |