[originaltext] A suicide bomber driving a petrol tanker killed at least 60 Ir

A suicide bomber driving a petrol tanker killed at least 60 Iraqi Shias yesterday as the vehicle caught fire and exploded, engulfing scores of people in flames near a mosque and market south of Baghdad.
   The huge blast near a Shia mosque in Musayyib, 40 miles from the capital, came on another day of unrelenting violence that also claimed the lives of three British soldiers in a roadside bomb.
   First details of the attack painted a picture of absolute horror even by the standards of Iraq as ambulances sped to the scene to attempt to give aid to the badly burned victims.
   "This is a black day in the history of the town," Musayyib police chief Yas Khudayr said.
   A1-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
   "The Hassan Ibrahim al-Zaidi attack continues for the second day in a row, with rigged cars, martyrdom attacks and clashes," said a statement from the terror group on a website. The operation is continuing as planned and we warn the enemies of God of more to come.
   News of the bombing came at the end of day of steady violence that saw the killing of three British soldiers, members of the 1st battalion of the Staffordshire Regiment, who were caught in another blast, in the troubled but largely Shia city of al-Amarah.
   It was not clear immediately who had planted this bomb, but if it was Shia radicals this would signal an alarming return in the area to the violence of last year that saw three British soldiers die as they battled Shia gunmen from the Jaish Mahdi militia of the firebrand cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.