At least 10 people have been killed and more than 30 wounded in a series of attacks in Baghdad, including a twin car bombing in a business district,  security sources said.

Eight people were killed and 25 wounded on Wednesday when two bombs exploded minutes apart in the Harfiyeh neighbourhood of west Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

Earlier, two people were killed and 13 wounded, six of them policeman, when three makeshift mines went off in east Baghdad.

"A bomb which was intended for Al-Jadida district Mayor Essam al-Temimi, went off in the Zatunah neighbourhood killing a civilian and wounding two of his bodyguards," a security source said.

A man was then killed when a mine went off on Palestine Street as a police patrol passed. Five people were wounded, three of them policemen.

Six people were wounded, three of them soldiers, when their convoy hit a makeshift mine.

Kirkuk attack

Outside the capital, three people were killed and one wounded when armed men opened fire near the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police Lieutenant Abdullah al-Obeidi said.

Nationwide, levels of violence had reached a four-year low, but they have picked up again in recent weeks.

On Monday, 34 people were killed and dozens wounded, including 22 people when a woman suicide bomber blew herself up in a crowd of people  who had gathered for a feast in the province of Diyala.

On Friday, a suicide bomber blew up a lorry near a police  station in Dujail, north of Baghdad, killing 31 people in the deadliest attack in nearly three months.

General Raymond Odierno, the new commander of US forces in Iraq, , warned when he took up his new post on Tuesday that recent security gains remained "fragile and reversible".