Ten killed in Iraq holy city car bombing

AFP: At least 10 people were killed, including four women, and 42 wounded when a car bomb blew up Thursday near a cemetery in Iraq’s holiest Shiite city of Najaf, medics and security officials said. NAJAF, Iraq, April 6, 2006 (AFP) – At least 10 people were killed, including four women, and 42 wounded when a car bomb blew up Thursday near a cemetery in Iraq’s holiest Shiite city of Najaf, medics and security officials said.

“Four of the 10 killed are women,” said Issa Mohammed, head of the Najaf morgue. “Some of the bodies are completely charred.”

The bomb exploded in the parking lot near the entrance of the Wadi Salam (Valley of Peace) cemetery, a security official said, adding that an immediate curfew had been imposed across the city.

The explosion came on the same day as hundreds of Shiites were demonstrating in Najaf to show their support for embattled Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. Similar marches took place in the holy city of Karbala and in the impoverished Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad.

Jaafari, a Shiite, has refused to relinquish his post despite growing calls from Iraq’s Kurds, Sunni Arabs and even some in his own Shiite party for him to step aside.

His candidacy for the premiership has become one of the main stumbling blocks in talks to set up a coalition government more than three months after the election.