Deadly bombs strike Iraq day after blasts
At least eight people killed and dozens wounded after series of bombs explode near Baghdad, police and doctors say.
Explosions in Iraq, including car bombs detonated at a sheep market south of Baghdad, have killed at least eight people and wounded dozens of others, officials have said.
The blasts come a day after several people were killed and wounded in a series of bomb attacks and shootings around Baghdad.
Brigadier General Abdul Jalil al-Assadi, the police chief of Diwaniyah province, said two car bombs went off at about 7.30am local time (04:30GMT) in the market on Friday.
Dr Adnan Turki, the director of the Diwaniyah health department, confirmed an earlier death toll of five people who were killed at the market bombing.
Witnesses said cows and calves were lying on the ground, covered in blood and dirt after the bombs were detonated simultaneously at the market, which is around 150km south of the capital.
“I came to buy some calves and was checking them when the explosion happened, I threw myself on the ground, then the second explosion happened,” Jassim Khalid, a butcher at the scene said.
Daily attacks
Two roadside bombs also exploded in a village near Dujail, north of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding five, including three police, a police lieutenant colonel and a doctor said.
One soldier was killed by a magnetic “sticky bomb” on his car near the north Iraq city of Mosul, an army first lieutenant and a doctor said.
And two car bombs – one near a school and another near a police checkpoint – detonated in Mussayib, south of Baghdad, wounding two people, police and a medic said.
Violence in Iraq is down from its 2006-2007 peak, but attacks fuelled by sectarian and political unrest still occur almost every day.
More than 200 people have been killed and over 550 wounded in attacks in Iraq February, according to an AFP news agency toll based on security and medical sources.