Toll rises to 43 in Karbala suicide bombing

BAGHDAD, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The casualty toll from a suicide bombing in Iraq's Shiite holy city of Karbala on Monday rose to 43killed and 70 people wounded, an Interior Ministry source said on Tuesday.

"The latest reports we have said that 43 people were killed and70 others were wounded by the suicide bomb attack in Karbala on Monday," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, Alaa Humood, head of Karbala's health office, also put the toll at 43 killed and 73 others injured by the blast in which a female suicide bomber blew up explosive belt at a busy coffee shop in an area near the shrine of Imam Hussein in the city, some110 km south of Baghdad.

Humood said that four Iranians were among the killed and eight others among the wounded.

But Karbala's Police Chief Brig. Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat deniedon Tuesday that it was a suicide attack, saying a home-made bomb had been planted in the area.

The explosion came as U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was paying a surprise visit to Iraq.

Suicide bombings involving women have been increasing recently. A female suicide bomber was blamed for one of the bloody attacks in two Baghdad markets in early February which killed nearly 100people.

On March 10, a woman suicide bomber detonated her explosive vest, killing a Sunni tribal leader in the Diyala province.

The U.S. military said early this year that violence had dropped by about 60 percent since last June. However, a string of attacks struck the country over the past three months, raising fears of a comeback of violence.

BAGHDAD, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from a suicide bombing in Iraq's Shiite holy city of Karbala on Monday rose to 35, with 55 others wounded, an interior ministry source said.

A female suicide attacker detonated explosives in a market near the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, about 110 km south of Baghdad, the source said. Full story

BAGHDAD, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday said the United States has made a "successful endeavor" in Iraq on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.

Cheney, who arrived in Baghdad in the morning on an unannounced visit, met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Iraqi political figures.