video transcript

Four civilians are killed and 21 others are wounded as a car bomb explodes here in Hilla on Thursday - just 60 miles south of Iraq's capital Baghdad. The car was parked outside an auto repair shop in the centre city. Meanwhile in the Iraqi capital another blast killed at least one person and wounded over a dozen others, when a bomb placed under a parked car went off. The bomb detonated in a popular market in the southwest of the city. Violence in Iraq has dramatically decreased since the height of bloodshed half a decade ago. But al Qaeda affiliates and other Sunni Islamist insurgents continue to carry out frequent attacks, often targetting Shi'ite Muslims in attempt to stoke sectarian tensions.