A car bomb hit a group of laborers after they boarded a minibus in a market in Kufa on Tuesday, killing at least 59 people and sparking clashes between protesters and police, witnesses and officials said.

The blast, some 50-100 meters from a Shiite shrine in the southern city of Kufa, tore through the minibus after it had pulled out of the crowded market.

Hospital and security sources said 132 people were wounded in the blast, which dealt a fresh blow to Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's efforts to promote national reconciliation.

Riyadh al-Shibni, a doctor in a Najaf health center, said hospitals in Najaf and Kufa had received 59 bodies.

Police in the scene were pelted with rocks by angry crowds. Many appeared to be followers of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has many supporters in the town. Kufa is 160 km south of Baghdad.

The protesters chanted to the police: "You are traitors!" "You are not doing your job!" "American agents!"

Police then fired into the air to disperse the onlookers and confused scenes ensued, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.

"It is very chaotic now. The police are shooting in the air and the crowds are running," he said. "Ambulances are racing around town."

PHOTO CAPTION

Residents pray during the funeral of a victim killed outside the Maithem al-Tamar shrine in Kufa, July 6, 2006. (Reuters)