AL-MUSAYYAB, Iraq: At least 68 people were martyred and more than 110 injured in two separate bomb attacks at husseiniaat south of Baghdad on Saturday.

A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a gas tanker truck outside a husseiniyah in Al-Musayyab, near Kerbala, leaving at least 60 people martyred and some 90 others wounded, an interior ministry official said.

The powerful blast caused a firestorm which completely destroyed two nearby residential buildings, along with a number of shops, a crowded café and nearly one-dozen vehicles.

"This is a black day in the history of the town," Musayyab police chief Yas Khudayr told Reuters by telephone.

Some people who rushed to the scene discovered they had lost loved ones. "After the bomb I went over there and found my son's head. I could not find his body," said Mohsen Jassim of his 18-year-old son.

Also on Saturday, at least eight Iraqis have been martyred after two bombers blew themselves up inside a husseiniyah near Al-Hilla city during afternoon prayers. 20 others were injured in the blast.