Dozens Killed in Iraqi Holy City

Bus Station Bombed In Karbala, 200 Yards From Shrine

* EDITORS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT * Emergency services collect charred remains of a people killed in a car bomb blast on a major bridge in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, April 14, 2007. A suicide car bomb exploded on a major bridge in downtown Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 10 people, police said. At least 15 people were wounded in the attack, which occurred on the Jadriyah bridge over the Tigris river. The extent of damage to the bridge was not immediately clear. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed ) (Khalid Mohammed - AP)

BAGHDAD, April 14 -- A car bomb tore through a packed bus station and marketplace in one of Iraq's holiest Shiite cities Saturday morning, killing at least 32 people and wounding more than 150, police and hospital officials said.

The vehicle's driver detonated his explosives at the main entrance of the Karbala bus station about 9:15 a.m., turning stands at an adjacent vegetable market into piles of twisted metal and engulfing nearby vehicles in flames, police said.

Bloody survivors evacuated the wounded and the dead in rickety wooden pushcarts. Charred bodies were laid under blankets in the garden of Imam Hussein General Hospital after its small morgue overflowed, a physician said.

At least 32 people were killed and 158 were wounded, said Khalid Adnan, director of the hospital. Most of the wounded were in critical condition, he said. A police spokesman put the death toll at 41, including many women and children.

Saturday's blast took place 200 yards from the shrine of Imam Hussein, burial place of the grandson of the prophet Muhammad. It is one of the most sacred sites for Shiite Muslims and a popular destination for many Iraqi and Iranian pilgrims, some of whom were among the dead, officials said.

Hundreds of Shiites were killed as they traveled to and from Karbala during an annual pilgrimage last month. But the city itself, about 60 miles southwest of Baghdad, has rarely been the target of bombings.

After Saturday's explosion, the scene quickly descended further into chaos as angry survivors attacked police officers and accused them of failing to protect the area, said Aqil al-Khazali, governor of Karbala province. Police fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd, then turned their guns on the people, killing an unknown number of civilians, Khazali said.

Husam al-Moussawi, a media representative for firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, said that two people were killed by the gunfire and that two police cars were set afire.

Television reports said no police were in the area when the bomb went off. Members of the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to Sadr, initially helped evacuate bodies and block cars but backed away when authorities arrived, witnesses and Moussawi said.

The situation calmed when Iraqi soldiers arrived, Khazali said. Police imposed an indefinite curfew to prevent more protests and clashes, according to Karbala police spokesman Rahman Imshaher.

"Karbala is not protected by the police; it is only protected by Imam Hussein and God," said taxi driver Aad Ali, 42, who recounted that he was driving a few blocks from the blast site when the bomb went off. Police frequently stop him but never search his car, he said: "They are not capable of fighting terrorists."

Imshaher said there are police patrols but no checkpoints in the area of the bus station, so streets are open for pilgrims heading to the shrine. He said police officials in Karbala, a city of about 600,000, recently asked Iraq's Interior Ministry for more officers. The city has about 9,000 officers on its force and wants at least 4,000 more, he said.