Car bomb in Shiite holy city in Iraq kills 7

A car bomb in Iraq's Shiite holy city of Karbala killed seven civilians and wounded nearly two dozen today, officials said.
The bomb went off in a commercial area in the city, which is some 90 kilometers south of Baghdad, a police official said. Karbala is home to the Imam Hussein Shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State, a Sunni extremist group, often targets Iraq's Shiite majority.
Baghdad has seen a string of near-daily attacks in recent weeks, but mainly Shiite southern Iraq has largely been spared from the violence.

Separate bombings in and around Baghdad killed another seven civilians today, police said.
Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.