Blasts rock holy Iraqi cities; 62 killed

Suicide bombers struck two main holy cities of Najaf and Karbala on Sunday.

Suicide car bombers struck Iraq's two main Shi'ite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala on Sunday, killing at least 62 people and wounding nearly 130, in coordinated attacks six weeks before a historic election.

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It was the highest bombing death toll in Iraq since July and by far the bloodiest attack since last month's US assault on the Sunni city of Falluja, which aimed to quell the insurgency.

Both bombs, which went off about two hours apart, exploded near crowded bus stations in an apparently coordinated attempt to cause as much bloodshed as possible among Shi'ites, a long-oppressed majority expected to dominate the Jan. 30 vote.

Earlier in Baghdad, gunmen killed three Electoral Commission employees after hauling them from a car on a busy street.

The bomb blasts were not far from important shrines — the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf and Imam Hussein mosque in Karbala.

The attacks appeared designed to provoke sectarian conflict with Saddam Hussein's long-dominant Sunni minority — officials have seen similar motives behind previous attacks in the cities.