IRAQ:A suicide bomber drove a minibus into a crowded market in Iraq's Shia city of Kufa yesterday, killing 16 people, in the latest in a string of sectarian attacks blamed on al-Qaeda Sunni militants.
Witnesses said the bomber drove a minibus into an open-air market packed with morning shoppers in central Kufa, near the holy Shia city of Najaf, 160km (100 miles) south of Baghdad.
"I saw the minibus coming through the crowds. There was one person driving. He tried to park the vehicle and then it exploded. There were many bodies," said Mohan Ali.
Salem Nima, head of the media centre in the provincial health department of Najaf, said the blast killed 16 people and wounded 70. Provincial spokesman Ahmed Duaibi blamed al-Qaeda.
The blast ripped through a nearby restaurant, blowing out windows, knocking over tables and scattering body parts. In the wake of the explosion, angry protesters gathered at the site and chanted slogans against US forces and government officials.
"At least five or six people were killed inside the restaurant. There are pools of blood on the floor," said Ali al-Hamadani, the restaurant's owner.
Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda, which US and Iraqi officials accuse of trying to tip Iraq into full-scale civil war between majority Shia and minority Sunni Arabs, has recently stepped up attacks in the southern Shia heartland.
Kufa is a stronghold of fiery Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army, a powerful militia which has been blamed for reprisal killings of Sunni Arabs.
Last month, a suicide car bombing blamed on al-Qaeda killed 60 people and wounded 170 near one of Iraq's most-revered Shia Muslim shrines in Kerbala, also in the Shia south.
Both President George W Bush and Gen David Petraeus, commander of the 150,000 US forces in Iraq, have called al-Qaeda "public enemy No 1" in Iraq.
A US-backed security crackdown in Baghdad has reduced the number of sectarian killings blamed on death squads, but a string of car bombs has killed hundreds in recent weeks. The crackdown, seen as a last-ditch attempt to stop Iraq from sliding into all-out civil war, is aimed at giving Shia prime minister Nuri al-Maliki breathing space to push powersharing agreements to tame the Sunni insurgency.
Meanwhile, members of a committee set up to reform Iraq's constitution said yesterday they hoped to submit recommendations to parliament next week, a major step towards meeting a political benchmark Washington has set for Baghdad.
The announcement comes amid US impatience at Mr Maliki's progress in implementing the powersharing agreements and redistribution of oil wealth which the US says are key to curbing sectarian violence.
Leaders from the Sunni Arab minority have, in recent days, renewed threats to quit Mr Maliki's government because they believe Sunni concerns are not being addressed.
Washington regards Sunni participation in government as key to stabilising Iraq. Sunnis are the backbone of the insurgency.