Monday, February 28 2005 17:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hilla (Iraq): One hundred and five people were killed and 133 wounded in a car bombing today (Feb 28, 2005) outside a medical centre in Hilla, south of Baghdad, the deadliest attack in Iraq in a year, medical officials said.

"Our definitive toll after taking away the last victims is 105 dead and 122 wounded," said Doctor Mohammed Dia, head of Hilla's general hospital.

The car bomb blew up in a crowd of civil servants gathered outside the medical centre in a packed commercial district.

Civil servants had gathered there for physical exams that would permit them to go to work for the State or return to jobs lost with the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.

Ambulances rushed the dead and wounded to the hospital as the wreckage of the explosives-packed car smouldered in the street.