Suicide car bomber kills 17 Iraqi workers

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber rammed his car into a group of day labourers waiting to be hired in the mainly Shi'ite city of Hilla yesterday, killing 17, police said.

Police in the city 100km south of Baghdad said 49 people were wounded in the blast, which came against a backdrop of continuing sectarian bloodshed between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis that has killed thousands.

The workers were attacked in a yard where they usually gathered to be hired, police said.

- REUTERS