Bomb attacks kill four in Baghdad

Two separate bomb attacks in commercial areas of predominantly Sunni neighbourhoods of Baghdad have killed at least four civilians.

A police officer said the first bomb exploded during rush hour in the Amiriyah neighbourhood, killing two pedestrians and wounding nine others.

He added that another roadside bomb went off in nearby Khadra neighbourhood, killing two civilians and wounding eight. A medical official confirmed the causality figures.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in violence over the past few months, raising fears that Iraq could see a new round of widespread sectarian bloodshed similar to that which brought the country to the edge of civil war in 2006 and 2007.