BAGHDAD, Oct 30: Eighty people were killed or found dead in Iraq on Monday, including 33 victims of a bomb attack on labourers lined up to find a day’s work in Baghdad’s predominantly Shia district of Sadr City.

In other incidents gunmen killed hardline Sunni academic Essam al-Rawi, head of the University Professors Union, as he was leaving home. At least 156 university professors have been killed since the war began.

Hundreds, possibly thousands, more are believed to have fled to neighbouring countries, although education ministry spokesman Basil al-Khatib al-Khatib said he had no specific numbers on those who have left the country.

The explosion in the sprawling Sadr City tore through food stalls and kiosks, , cutting down men who gather there each morning hoping to be hired as construction workers. Sixty were wounded.

Sadr City is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army loyal to radical Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, and has been the scene of repeated bomb attacks by suspected Al Qaeda fighters seeking to incite revenge attacks and drag the country into full-blown civil war.

Ali Abdul-Ridha, injured on in the head and shoulders, said he was waiting for a job with his brother and about 100 others when he heard a massive explosion and “lost sight of everything.”

He said the area had been exposed to attack because US and Iraqi forces had driven into hiding Mahdi fighters who usually provide protection in the tumbledown district on the northeast extreme of Baghdad.

“That forced Mahdi Army members, who were patrolling the streets, to vanish,” the 41-year-old Abdul-Ridha said from his bed in al-Sadr Hospital, his brother lying beside him asleep.

However, Falih Jabar, a 37-year old father of two boys, said the Mahdi Army was responsible for provoking extremists to attack civilians in the neighbourhood of 2.5 million people.

“We are poor people just looking to make a living. We have nothing to do with any conflict,” said Jabar, who suffered back wounds. “If (the extremists) have problems with the Mahdi Army, they must fight them, not us,” he added.

Also among those killed were a woman selling tea and three children ranging in age from 10 to 15 years, said police Capt. Khadhim Abbas Hamza and Rahim Qassim Jassim, deputy head of the local health directorate.

The last major bombing in Sadr City occurred on Sept 23 when a bomb hidden in a barrel blew up a kerosene tanker and killed at least 35 people waiting to stock up on fuel for Ramazan.—AP