BBC: A car bomb has exploded in the city of Karbala in central Iraq, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens more, officials say.
BBC News
A car bomb has exploded in the city of Karbala in central Iraq, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens more, officials say.
The explosion occurred in the northern part of the city, reports say.
Karbala is a place of pilgrimage for Shia Muslims, mainly from neighbouring Iran.
“It was a car bomb. There were Iranian pilgrims in the area. They were targeted,” said Mohammed al-Moussawi, head of the Karbala provincial council.
Last week, about a dozen co-ordinated bombs targeted Shia districts across the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killing more than 60 people and wounding hundreds.
Those attacks came two days after at least 52 people were killed as police stormed a church in Baghdad where hostages were being held.
Analysts said of the previous attacks that the spike in violence could be a last-ditch attempt by al-Qaeda to exploit the political vacuum in the country which has been without a government for nearly eight months.
