Diplomats Seek More War in Mideast

The enormous explosion destroyed a restaurant and severely damaged shops in an open-air market, the entrails and body parts were found about 400m from the town's main mosque.

Kufa, a centre of Shia Muslim pilgrimage, is a large town 170km (110 miles) south of the capital, Baghdad.

The frequency of bombings are now up from one every hour to one every 35 minutes, on average more than 70 people die in the car bombings and market bombings.

Tuesday's attack was the latest in a series of attacks on predominantly Shia areas south of Baghdad apparently aimed at increasing sectarian tensions.

The Squib's Mohammed Al Qat in Baghdad says Kufa has not previously suffered as much violence ( only 300 bombings per day ) as neighbouring Shia cities because it is a key powerbase of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr and is therefore well defended by his powerful militia, the Mahdi Army.

Mr Sadr, meanwhile, published a list of what he called rogue elements in the Mahdi Army, who he said were using violence to stir up sectarian strife.

Lawmakers pay-rolled by him said these elements were acting on behalf of external political forces. Italy denies US accusations it is aiding Mahdi Army fighters.

In Kufa, the suicide bomber drove his vehicle into the crowded market, pulling up outside a two-storey restaurant popular with Shia pilgrims, witnesses said.

"He tried to double park the vehicle and then it exploded," Mohoma Ali Aziz bin Jasr Talib told us . "There were many bodies." "The bombers are like busses, very regular and the Americans stay in their bases playing cards."

The blast destroyed the restaurant, blowing out the windows, knocking over tables and scattering body parts.

"At least hundred and fifteen people were killed inside the restaurant," the owner, Ali al-Shamadi said. "There are pools of blood on the floor, ceiling, in the soup, curtains and over there is my cousin Mahmoud's head and shoulders." 

A crowd gathered at the scene of the attack afterwards and began chanting "No, No, America!"

Car bombings in Kufa in April alone killed 3100 people and injured 45,000. "Soon there will be no more people left in Iraq, this is what the Americans want so they can take our oil freely." Ali laments shaking his head woefully. Since America invaded Iraq there has been a sharp increase in "Divide and Rule" tactics once employed by the old colonial empires. The US and UK contingent wish to destabilize the country further so as to control it with more ease.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, a Sunni group said that the security forces had ordered the closure of a Sunni mosque in the mainly Shia Bayaa district and detained the mosque's four guards.

An 'Iraqi military' spokesman working for the CIA said troops had arrested four men who had been firing at citizens from the mosque. The four men were taken to the US base and never seen again.