HILLAH, Iraq -- In the deadliest single strike since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a suicide car bomber attacked mostly Shiite police and national guard recruits lined up for physical exams at a ...

HILLAH, Iraq – In the deadliest single strike since the fall of Saddam Hussein (search), a suicide car bomber attacked mostly Shiite police and National Guard recruits lined up for physical ...

Hillah is a largely Shiite city about 60 miles south of Baghdad. On Feb. 28, a suicide car bomber struck a crowd of police and army recruits in Hillah, killing 125 and wounding more than 140.

The mosque is run by loyalists of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. "Suddenly, a huge explosion shook the entire building," said Dawood Ahmad, 23, a worshiper.

A hospital official confirmed the casualty figures. Violence in Iraq has fallen sharply from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but deadly attacks remain common a decade after the U.S.-led invasion.

Then Iraqi guards at the mosque caught two men trying to smuggle a grenade inside, witnesses said. As Iraqi police wrestled the suspects into a squad car, someone fired shots from a nearby building.

In Iraq today, a huge explosion nearly completely destroyed one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites. In a moment, we'll hear more about the Askiriya Shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra.

Crews in blue jumpsuits and orange helmets picked through mounds of rubble spilling from the mosque in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, which became the spark for a vicious cycle of sectarian ...