HILLAH, Iraq - A suicide bomb hidden in a minivan exploded in this southern Iraqi city near a crowd of men waiting to be hired as day laborers on Sunday, killing 22 and wounding 44, many of them seriously, police said.
The minivan approached the crowd of men in central Hillah, a mostly Shiite city 60 miles south of Baghdad, and exploded as they gathered around it, said police Capt. Muthanna Khalid Ali.
Unemployment is high across Iraq, and men often struggle to feed their families by working jobs such as the construction work the Hillah residents were seeking.
"The sudden explosion shook the whole area and shattered the windows of a store I was standing outside of nearby," said Muhsin Hadi Alwan, 33, one of the wounded day laborers. "The ground was covered with the remains of people and blood, and survivors ran in all directions."
"How will I feed the six members of my family when I return home without work and without money?" Alwan said.
Another survivor, Mohammed Abbas Kadhim, 30, said: "I was thrown a few meters by the blast and I couldn't see or hear for a few minutes as I was laying on the ground. "People were racing everywhere looking for their missing sons, brothers, friends - all of them shouting 'God is great.'"
As they spoke, firefighters raced to the scene to put out the burning vehicle. Soldiers also gathered there, in part to guard heavily damaged shops and stalls from scavengers.
Hillah has been the site of many deadly bomb attacks.
In August, an explosives-rigged bicycle blew up near an army recruiting center in the city, killing at least 12 people. The attacker, who was posing as an army applicant, left the bike at the center as volunteers gathered outside.
In May, a car packed with explosives blew up at a dealership in Hillah, killing at least 12 people and wounding 32.
Hillah also was the site of one of the worst bomb attacks to occur in Iraq since the war started, when a suicide car bomber killed 125 national guard and police recruits in February 2005.
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