HILLA: A car bomb ripped through a funeral procession near a mosque in central Iraq on Friday evening, killing at least nine people and wounding 19 others, security and medical officials said.
The explosion occurred at around 1430 GMT outside the Nabi Ayub Shia mosque in the town of Al-Khafaji, just south of Hilla, the capital of Babil province.
A doctor at Hilla's main hospital put the toll at nine killed and 30 wounded, while a police first lieutenant said 10 people died and 29 were injured.
Conflicting tolls are common in the confusion that follows attacks in Iraq. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb targeting a shop selling birds in the east Baghdad neighbourhood of Zafraniyah killed at least one person, officials said.
An interior ministry official put the toll at one dead and eight wounded from the attack, while a doctor at a nearby hospital said two people were killed and six were wounded.
Violence is down nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 239 people were killed in violence in Iraq in August, according to official figures.
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