Separate car bombs in the Iraq cities of Baghdad and Mosul have killed at least eight people today.
In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul a series of car bombs killed four people and wounded 40 others outside a church, police said.
The initial blast went off this morning outside the church in western Mosul, where insurgents stage shootings, roadside bombs and kidnappings more than six years after the US-led invasion.
The second car bomb exploded less than 10 minutes later as people gathered at the initial blast site. Across the city in northern Mosul, a bomb exploded near another church, breaking windows and damaging the church's gates. No one was wounded.
Mosul's Christian minority has been targeted in the past in this ethnically and religiously diverse city.
Mosul is seen as one of the few remaining strongholds for Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda.
Earlier three car bombs exploded in central Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 15, police said.
They said the death toll was based on initial reports and could rise.
One explosion occurred in a car park near the Iranian embassy, another near the foreign ministry and the third close to a popular restaurant.
The attacks took place a week after a series of car bomb blasts in central Baghdad killed up to 112 people.
Reuters