At least one Iranian killed in car bombing in Iraq's Najaf

At least an Iranian pilgrim was killed and ten people wounded when a car bomb went off near buses carrying Iranian pilgrims in the holy Shiite city of Najaf on Monday, an Interior Ministry source said.

The attack took place in the afternoon when a booby-trapped car parked near an intersection in central of the Najaf city, some 160 km south of Baghdad, detonated near a passing convoy of three buses carrying Iranian pilgrims, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attack was the second during the day which targeted Iranian pilgrims. An earlier car bombing in the city of Karbala that killed up to 11 people, including seven Iranian pilgrims and wounded some 40 others, including Iranians, the source said.

Earlier, the source put the toll of Karbala attack at 10 killed and 38 wounded.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranian pilgrims flock to Iraq to visit holy Shiite shrines since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled the former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.

Violence and sporadic high-profile attacks are still common in Iraqi cities as part of recent deterioration in security which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country after violence-torn Iraq held parliamentary elections eight months ago.

Source: Xinhua