At least 30 people were killed and more than 45 others wounded when a car bomb went off Saturday at a busy market in Kufa town near the holy Shiite city of Najaf, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

"A car bomb parking at a popular market in Kufa town detonated at about 10:00 AM (07:00 GMT), killing 30 people and wounding 45 others," the source said on condition of anonymity.

The attack came just few hours after the Iraqi government executed the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein by hanging early Saturday.

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2006)