7 killed in Iraq bombings

HILLA: A spate of bombings across Iraq, including two suicide attacks and a bicycle bomb, killed seven people and wounded more than 40 on Sunday, police said.

In the deadliest attack, five people were killed and 37 wounded when a bomb hidden in a cooler on the back of a bicycle ripped through a market in the Shiite city of Mussayib at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT).

The two-wheeler had been parked at the market in Mussayib, 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Baghdad and in Babil province, police said.

The western Iraqi city of Ramadi, capital of the predominantly Sunni province of Al-Anbar, was hit by two suicide bombings, police said.

One of the attackers detonated a car bomb at the city's western entrance, killing two people and wounding four others, according to police Colonel Jabbar Ajaj.

Ajaj added that another suicide attacker blew himself up near a police station outside Ramadi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, but killed only himself. No one was wounded.

The attacks come a week after twin suicide bombings in central Baghdad killed 153 people and wounded 500, the deadliest day of violence in Iraq in more than two years.