By DPA
Baghdad : A suicide bomb attack Monday near a Shia holy site in the southern Iraqi city of Karbala killed 36 people and injured at least 50, according to Iraqi al-Sharqiya television.
A woman bomber wearing an explosive belt blew herself up in a coffee shop in the car-free Mukhaim area, 300 metres away from the shrine of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Muhammad, witnesses told DPA.
The scene of the blast is heavily fortified because of its proximity to the holy site, which receives hundreds of visitors everyday.
Some Iranians, who were visiting the shrine, are believed to have been among the wounded and dead, the TV channel said.
Karbala has been the scene of clashes between loyalists of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi forces and occasional sectarian- motivated attacks.