BAGHDAD, Nov 2: At least 21 people were killed and 61 wounded when a car bomb exploded on Wednesday in Musayyib, 55 kilometres south of the Iraqi capital, security and hospital sources said.

The bombing took place on the eve of Eidul Fitr.

It was carried out using a minibus packed with explosives that blew up at 5:20pm, said police Captain Ahmed Naimi in the nearby provincial capital of Hilla.

The car bomb was set off at sundown at the same place where at least 83 people were killed and 153 injured when a suicide bomber set off a massive fireball on July 16 as worshippers gathered for prayers.

The bomber in that attack blew himself up next to a liquefied tanker, and the blast torched some 20 cars, destroyed about 40 shops and set nearby buildings on fire.

On Monday a car bomb killed 18 people in the normally quiet southern port city of Basra, ripping through a market packed with shoppers.

And on Saturday a bomb hidden in a truck packed with dates exploded in a market in Huwaider, some 60kms north of Baghdad, killing 26.—AFP