Eight people were killed in a bomb attack on a shrine in southern Iraq Thursday evening, security forces said Friday. A further 57 people were injured when three bombs exploded in the town of al-Mussajib, according to doctors from the security services.
Violence in Iraq has been increasing over the last several months, since most security responsibilities were handed over to Iraqi forces from the US command. A civilian was killed on Friday in al-Saydiya, south of Baghdad when a magnet bomb attached to his car exploded, Iraqi media reported.
The body of a young man who had been shot dead was also reported to have been found outside of the northern city of Kirkuk, long centre of a power struggle among Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. The Kurdish news agency Peyamner reported on Friday that Arab members of the provincial parliament had rejected a proposal to allow US soldiers and Kurdish militiamen to take responsibility for security in the city together with Iraqi soldiers.