At least nine people were killed and some 70 injured on Thursday in a bomb and a car bomb explosions in central the city of Hilla, the capital of Babel province south of Baghdad, a provincial police source said.

An explosive charge went off at a parking lot in the center of Hilla, some 100 km south of Baghdad, detonated at about 1:30 p.m. (1030 GMT), the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Minutes later, a car bomb parked at the site went off after Iraqi security forces and onlookers gathered at the scene, the source said.

A total of nine people were killed and 70 others were wounded, along with destroying several nearby cars and shops, the source added.

Two police officers, one of them an explosives expert, were among the killed and many policemen were among the wounded, he said.

The double attacks came as the city like other Iraqi Shiite cities are marking the Ashura religious ritual, which commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, in 680 AD.

Sporadic attacks continue in Iraq as part of recent security deterioration which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country ahead of the country's national polls next year.

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