Seven killed in Iraq attacks

A series of bombings and gun attacks killed seven people in Iraq on Thursday, including four who died in a car bombing in a predominantly Shiite city south of Baghdad, officials said.

The continuing violence, primarily carried out by Sunni militants bent on destabilising the Shiite-led government, also underlines concerns over the capabilities of Iraq's security forces nearly a year after US forces departed.

In the deadliest attack, a car bomb in the centre of Hilla, around 95 kilometres (60 miles) from Baghdad, killed four people and wounded 20, a medic and a police officer said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

Three other people -- two civilians and a policeman -- were killed in separate incidents in volatile Diyala province, an ethnically-mixed region just north of the capital, according to officials.

Violence in Iraq is dramatically lower than its peak in 2006 and 2007 when the country was in the throes of a brutal sectarian war, but Sunni militants still carry out attacks in a bid to target Shiite-majority areas, government institutions, and security forces.