BAGHDAD, Jan 26: Iraqi insurgents killed 19 people and wounded scores more on Friday, security officials said. Among the dead were 15 killed when a famous pet market in Baghdad was bombed.

The device, hidden in a pigeon carrier box, exploded in central Baghdad's well known Al-Ghazil (Spinning) pet market, killing 15 people and wounding 35, a security source said.

The bomb ripped through the market where animal lovers gather every Friday to admire and buy birds, dogs, cats, reptiles and tropical fish.

The blast was the latest in a string of attacks targeting Baghdad markets as insurgents focus their fury on shopping districts in a bid to inflict as many civilian casualties as possible.

On Thursday, at least 38 people were killed in a series of bombings on markets and shopping streets. In another suicide bomb attack on Friday, a bomber blew up his car as an Iraqi army patrol passed in the capital's mixed Allawi district, killing two people and wounding four more.

Attacks were also reported in other parts of the country.

One person was killed and three wounded when a bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up near a Shia mosque in the northern city of Mosul, a local police officer said.

The man tried to approach the Al-Kubba mosque in the northern Rashidiya region of the city and detonated the bomb as security guards tried to stop him.

And in the town of Iskandiriyah, 40 kilometres south of Baghdad, a woman was killed when insurgents attacked a policeman's house, police said.—AFP