A car bomb went off in a vegetable market in the southern Iraqi city of Hilla Friday, killing at least nine people and wounding 30, police said. According to Reuters, police Capt. Muthana Khalid Ali said the vehicle was parked when it went off at about 9.30am local time in Hilla, a Shiite-majority city about 60 miles south of Baghdad.
Elsewhere, in the southern city of Basra, an Iraqi police convoy was attacked late Thursday, killing four policemen and wounding one, said police Capt. Mushtaq Khazim.
On Thursday, at least 99 people were killed and more than 110 wounded when three car bombs exploded within minutes of each other in the mainly Shiite central Iraqi town of Balad, police said.
35 women and 22 children were among the dead, said Lieutenant Colonel Adel Abdallah of the Balad police. Fifty of those hurt were rushed to a nearby American military base, an interior ministry official said, according to AFP. A fourth car bomb exploded two hours later in northern Baghdad, targeting an army patrol. One civilian was killed and 14 hurt, security officials said.
