Hilla, built in the 11th century from the bricks of the ruins of ancient Babylon, is a predominantly Shiite Muslim city. The area is agricultural, and Hilla's surrounding farms produce dates and fruits for shipment to other parts of the country. The city's qaimer, a traditional buttermilk spread, is famous in Iraq.
The attack in Hilla was the second major bombing in that city this year. A suicide car bombing on Jan. 5 that targeted an Iraqi police academy killed at least 15.
Residents of Hilla, a predominantly Shiite Muslim city, survey the scene of a massive car bombing at a clinic where applicants for government jobs were waiting for checkups. The bomb also killed women and children at a nearby produce market and injured at least 146. Officials expected the death toll to rise.
(Alaa Al-marjani -- AP)
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Photo Gallery: Grim scenes from the site of Monday's deadly car bombing in Hilla.
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Iraqi police recruits have been frequent targets of insurgents. More than 2,000 officers were killed in 2004.
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A chronological list of some of the deadliest insurgent attacks targeting Iraqi civilians.
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There were no immediate assertions of responsibility for the attacks on Monday.
Hours after the bombing in Hilla, Iraq's interim interior minister, Falah Naqib, said at a news conference inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone that his government was working to stop such tragic events.
"First of all," Naqib said, authorities need "intelligence and cooperation of the people," adding that the government is "building our intelligence base." It also is organizing "strong forces" to battle the insurgents and control the country's borders, he said.
"Once those three elements are complete," Naqib said, "I think we'll be able to control all these terrorist organizations. We've gotten a good experience. . . . I think by the end of summer this year the situation will be . . . different."
Naqib said Iraqi police were learning to spot car bombers more quickly and in several recent cases "the suicide bomber was killed before the bomb went off."
He added, "The most important thing is that we have to eliminate those pockets of terrorists from the country and we are doing that."
Lt. Mohammed Hadi of the Babil police blamed "traitors" for the attack.
Hamza, the police chief, said he suspected insurgents connected to the terrorist network of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who is responsible for some of the worst incidents of violence in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The attack in Hilla came two days before the one-year anniversary of coordinated bomb blasts in Baghdad and nearby Karbala on March 2, 2004, that killed about 180 people. More than 100 people also were killed in nearly simultaneous suicide bomb attacks on Feb. 1, 2004, at local offices of the two main Kurdish political parties in northern Iraq.
The insurgency in Iraq has been relentless, and political leaders in the process of forming a transitional government acknowledge that their success or failure hangs on their ability to stop the violence.
Insurgents routinely target Iraqi security forces and government officials, believing them to be pawns of the U.S. government.
"The police are getting better day after day," said Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman. "But today, maybe there was a mistake by the guards or the policemen who were guarding there, and we are trying to prevent this from happening again."
Sarhan reported from Hilla. Staff writer Caryle Murphy and special correspondents Omar Fekeiki, Sahar Nageeb and Bassam Sebti contributed to this report.
