At least 30 people were killed and 60 others wounded when a suicide bomber struck a busy market near the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, state television reported on Thursday.

Two bomb blasts occurred at about 10:00 a.m. (0600 GMT), one was caused by a suicide bomber who blew himself up at the entrance to the market, while the other was triggered by a roadside bomb at the nearby al-Rasoul Street, police said.

The Imam Ali mosque, which contains the tomb of Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali, is one of the most sacred Shiite shrines in the country.

Najaf, a predominately Shiite city 160 km south of Baghdad, has seen some of the deadliest sectarian violence since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Source: Xinhua