Explosions have killed six Iraqis, including a woman and child, in co-ordinated attacks in the Muslim holy city of Najaf, emergency services say.

The blasts, which occurred around 5:30pm (1430 GMT) on Friday in Kufa on the outskirts of Najaf, also wounded 35 other people, health and  provincial security officials said.

An official at Sadr hospital said four men, a woman and a child were killed.

Luay al-Yasser, head of the provincial council's security committee, said two of the blasts were roadside bombs, but the cause of a third was unclear.

In a separate attack, a bomb attached to a car killed a man and his son in Buhriz, about 60km northeast of Baghdad, police said.

Eight arrested

In another development, eight Iraqis have been arrested over the killings of six British military police officers in a remote town in Iraq in 2003, the UK defence ministry said on Friday.

The six officers, members of a unit known as the Red Caps, died in June 2003 in Majjar when apparently angry residents stormed a police station.

The British military said at the time that the deaths stemmed from a misunderstanding between troops and residents over weapons searches.

But a defence ministry spokesman indicated on Friday that there was enough evidence to put on trial the eight suspects currently in custody in Iraq.