Baghdad: A car bomb blasted through a busy bus station near one of Iraq's holiest shrines on Saturday, killing at least 37 people, police and hospital officials said. Other reports put the death toll as high as 56.
Separately, a suicide car bomb killed 10 people on a major bridge in downtown Baghdad - the second attack on a span over the Tigris river this week, police said. The Jadriyah bridge suffered little damage.
The bus station bombing occurred about 200 meters (yards) from the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala, where the grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad is buried - one of the most important sites for Shiites.
Dr Khalid Adnan Obeid, director of Al-Hussein Hospital, Ghalib al-Daamai of the provincial security committee and Rahman Mishawi, spokesman for Karbala police, all said 37 civilians were killed and 168 wounded. Earlier, hospital officials said at least 56 people had been killed.
State television aired footage from the scene, in which rescue workers could be seen evacuating casualties. The charred body of a child laid motionless on a stretcher.
At least 16 children were among the dead, Brig. General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told reporters. Iranian and Pakistani pilgrims were also among the casualties, said an official at Al-Hussein Hospital, on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information.
''I want my father. Where is my father?'' cried out 11-year-old Sajad Kadhim as he lay on the grounds of the hospital, where doctors were treating his burns.
''All I remember was we were shopping. My father was holding my hand and suddenly there was a big explosion. I don't know where my father is. I want my father,'' the boy cried.
A 72-year-old woman who called herself Um Hussein ran through the hospital corridors looking for her daughter and six-year-old grandson.
''They were near the bomb. They went to buy something for our lunch,'' she said, pounding her head in grief. ''What did they do to deserve this? To whom should I complain? There is no government to protect us,'' she moaned.
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Hundreds of people swarmed around ambulances, crying out and pounding their chests. Police fired into the air to disperse crowds and clear roads for emergency vehicles, but angry mobs attacked them and set two police vehicles on fire.
Rioters surrounded the Karbala governor's office and demanded his and provincial council members' resignations - blaming them for lax security. Mobs threw stones at the governor's office and set fire to the building.
''This bombing shows a security breach, and we are investigating where the shortcoming was,'' Khalaf said.
A curfew was imposed in the area, and the city's entrances were sealed off while police and soldiers patrolled the streets.
''The explosion was a huge one. It took place in a crowded area,'' said Khalid al-Daami, head of the city's security committee. Among the dead were several women and children, he said.
Karbala lies 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, and is the destination of an annual Shiite pilgrimage. Hundreds of Shiite faithful were killed traveling back and forth to the city during this year's pilgrimage, which took place last month.
In Baghdad, at least 15 people were wounded in the Jadriyah bridge bombing _ the second such attack this week on infrastructure connecting the Iraqi capital's two sides.
On Thursday, a suicide truck bomb completely collapsed the al-Sarafiyah bridge in northern Baghdad, killing 11 people and sending cars plummeting into the waters below.
Police said four would-be suicide attackers were killed Saturday in the northern city of Kirkuk when one of them detonated his explosives belt prematurely.
All four men were killed but no civilians were hurt, said police Brig. Adil Zain-Alabideen. He said all four were insurgents embarking on an attack mission, but did not elaborate.
Kirkuk lies about 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad.
Also Saturday, gunmen attacked the western Baghdad house of Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the largest Sunni bloc in Iraq's parliament, police said. Al-Dulaimi was not at home at the time of the attack, and is believed to be in Jordan.
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