Roadside bombs kill 11 in Iraq

Updated 3:02pm: Three roadside bombs killed 11 people in Iraq on Wednesday, security and medical officials said, in the latest in a wave of attacks in the country this month.

A bomb exploded near the garden of a house in Madain, and the second one detonated after people gathered at the site, an interior ministry official said.

A medical source said that two hospitals had received eight bodies and that 18 people had been wounded in the blasts, while the official said eight people were killed and 10 hurt.

And in Ghazaliyah in west Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed three children from the same family and wounded three other people, according to the same sources.

Wednesday's toll brings to at least 184 people killed in Iraq since June 13 – more than the number of people killed in all of May.

Attacks on June 13, which killed 72 people across the country, were later claimed by Al-Qaeda's front group, the Islamic State of Iraq.

Two car bombs targeting Shia Muslims commemorating the death of a revered imam killed 32 people in the capital on June 16.

Two days later, a suicide bomber killed 22 people in an attack on Shia mourners in Baquba, north of Baghdad.

And at least 12 people were killed by roadside bombs, a suicide car bomb and a shooting on June 22, and 12 more killed in two bombings on June 25.

Violence has declined significantly since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common, killing 132 people in May, government figures show.

(AFP)