Market bombings, attacks across Iraq kill 29

Three car bombs exploded at outdoor markets and on a street full of shops near Iraq's capital, the deadliest of a series of attacks across the country that killed at least 29 people today, officials said.

The deadliest attack took place this afternoon in the city of Hillah when three separate car bombing struck two outdoor markets and a line of shops, killing nine people and wounding 21, police said.

Authorities said that all the blasts happened in a five-minute period.

Hillah is about 95 kilometres south of Baghdad. That night, police said a car bombing killed seven people and wounded 12 in the southern city of Najaf, about 160 kilometres south of Baghdad.

In the town of Suwayrah, 40 kilometres south of Baghdad, a car bomb ripped through a commercial area, killing five civilians and wounding 14, a police officer said.

A suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in the town of Samarra, 95 kilometres north of the capital, killing three officers, authorities said. The blast wounded four officers and five civilians.

A roadside bomb struck a patrol of a pro-government, anti-al-Qaeda Sunni militia, killing three and wounding seven in Tarmiyah, a Sunni town and former insurgent stronghold about 50 kilometres north of Baghdad, police said.

Militants consider members of the group, known as the Awakening Council, as traitors since they were formed by US forces during the height of Iraq's insurgency.

A bomb also went off in Baghdad's Palestine Street, killing two civilians and wounding eight, police said.

Four medical officials confirmed the casualty figures.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release information.

A spike in attacks in Iraq has raised fears about a return of the sectarian bloodshed that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007.