BAGHDAD, Iraq – The death toll for Iraqi civilians and American forces rose Saturday as a car bomb ripped through crowds of worshippers in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, killing at least 60 people, and U.S. military authorities announced the deaths of nine soldiers and Marines.
U.S. deaths have surged in April, contributing to a grim statistic: So far this year, 343 soldiers have been killed, 53 percent higher than the 224 killed in the first four months of last year, according to the Web site icasualties.org.
Details were sketchy of the Karbala attack, the second in the city this month. The car bomb apparently exploded at the checkpoint closest to a mosque, which is one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines. The streets around the shrine are always filled with pilgrims.
On April 14, a car bomb exploded in a Karbala bus station near the shrine, killing 47 people and wounding 224. In Saturday’s attack, 170 people were wounded.
The attack comes in the third month of the U.S.-led military coalition’s security crackdown and in the midst of an intensifying political struggle in Washington, D.C., over the war. Last week, Congress passed a bill that would make additional funding for the war contingent on a timed withdrawal of U.S. troops. President Bush has promised to veto the bill.
In Baghdad, the center of the troop buildup, civilian casualties have declined since mid-February, but overall civilian casualties in Iraq are up, the U.S. military said this month.
The Americans reported killed in action included four soldiers killed by roadside bombs in the Baghdad area on Saturday, plus three soldiers and two Marines who were killed in Al Anbar combat operations Friday.
The number of U.S. uniformed personnel killed so far in April totals 99. Only five more months have been more deadly for U.S. forces since the war began in March 2003.
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