Death toll from Iraq Shiite shrine attack rises to 52

Karbala, Iraq (ANTARA News) - The death toll from a bomb attack near a revered Shiite shrine in the central Iraqi city of Karbala has risen to 52, a health official told AFP Tuesday.

A bomb exploded near the shrine of Imam Hussein, a pilgrimage destination for Shiite Muslims in the centre of the city, on Monday.

Karbala police chief Brigadier General Raed Shakir said the bomb had been planted in the area by insurgents, although other police and health officials said the attack was carried out by a femail suicide bomber.

On Tuesday, Salim Kadhim, spokesman of the Karbala health directorate said the death toll from the attack was now at 52, while 75 others were wounded.

He said the dead included five Iranian pilgrims. Eight Iranians were also wounded.

The attack came as US Vice President Dick Cheney was on a visit to Baghdad where he met several US and Iraqi leaders to discuss improvements in security across the country.

Soon after the attack, police in Karbala, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, imposed an indefinite curfew in the central districts of the city.

Insurgents have targeted the Shiite shrine city on a number of occasions in the past five years.

On April 28 last year, a suicide car bomb attack near the Imam Abbas shrine, another revered Shiite shrine in Karbala, killed more than 70 people and wounded nearly 160.

Two weeks earlier, a similar bomb attack close to the Imam Hussein shrine killed 42 people and wounded scores more.

Karbala was also the site of bloody clashes between Shiite militants and police in August that killed more than 50 people dead and injured hundreds.

The Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was blamed for those clashes after which Sadr ordered a freeze on the activities of the militia, which remains in force. (*) end