U.S. war efforts in Iraq were dealt another devastating blow yesterday as a car bomb near a holy Shiite shrine killed at least 58 Iraqis and, in separate attacks, nine more American soldiers were slain.
The bomb blast in the Shiite holy city of Karbala came near the shrines of Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein - two major Shiite saints - as Iraqis gathered for evening prayer.
As the blood flowed, mourners exploded with rage, hurling stones at cops and storming a local governor's house, furious at the failure to protect them from the unrelenting bombings usually blamed on Sunni insurgents.
The attack was the second in two weeks near the Karbala shrine: On April 14, 47 people were killed and 224 were wounded in a car bombing.
The blast is expected to inflame the already out-of-control conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in war-torn Iraq - and make America's job tougher.
The Americans killed in Iraq included five who died in fighting Friday in Anbar Province, three killed yesterday when a roadside bomb struck their patrol southeast of Baghdad and one killed in a separate roadside bombing south of the capital.
The deaths raised to 99 the members of the U.S. military who have died this month in Iraq, and at least 3,346 have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Meanwhile, the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr launched a strong attack on President Bush, calling him the "greatest evil" for refusing to withdraw American troops from Iraq. He said he backs the Democrats' plan to start leaving Iraq by Oct. 1.
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