It's a mostly Shiite town about 100 miles south of Baghdad.

An in Kufa, a sacred Shiite town in the south, another bomb killed 36 people and wounded 58.

Fighting erupted outside Marj'ayoun and the nearby Shiite town of al-Khiyam.

The visits also provided hints of how the political power vacuum in Najaf and other Shiite Muslim towns in southern Iraq was being filled.

Some had come from Baghdad, others from Shiite towns farther south.

September 29 - Suicide bombers killed at least 114 people in the Shi'ite town of Balad, north of Baghdad.

Three of the teachers lived in Muhawil, a Shiite town 15 miles to the south, an Interior Ministry official said.

Hilla is a mainly Shi'ite town which has witnessed a number of bombings in the last two years.

Nasiriya was a predominantly Shiite town that had rebelled against Saddam Hussein during the Persian Gulf war.

A car bomb tore through a street crowded with pedestrians and vendors in the predominantly Shiite town of Musayyib, killing at least 6 people, wounding 21.