Unidentified assailants shot a senior intelligence official dead in his car today and police discovered the bullet riddled bodies of three men, a day after gunmen beheaded five people.

A string of early morning bombings near a technology university in Baghdad today killed five people and injured 18 others, police said.

A bomb struck a Sunni mosque in Baghdad after prayers today, killing seven people and wounding five, while mortars barraged a Shiite mosque north of the capital, leaving five wounded.

A parked car bomb followed by a suicide attacker on foot struck a restaurant near the heavily-guarded Green Zone in Baghdad today, killing at least five people and wounding 10.

Gunmen seized 10 workers from a bakery today in a predominantly Shiite neighbourhood in Baghdad, while a car bomb in the northern city of Mosul killed one woman and wounded 19 other people, police said.

A car bomb exploded today at an outdoor market in a Shiite area of southwestern Baghdad, killing 22 people and injuring 28, police said.

A car bomb exploded outside a Sunni Muslim mosque in south-western Baghdad today, killing at least four Iraqis and wounding 21.

Two bombs exploded minutes apart near a central Baghdad square today, killing at least seven people and wounding about 20 more.

An empty minibus loaded with explosives detonated near a hospital in east Baghdad today, killing three people and injuring 13, police said.