Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- A car bomb went off at a busy market in Hilla City south of Baghdad on Sunday, killing a woman and wounding 13 others, an Interior Ministry source said.

    "A car bomb parking at a popular market near a local government office, killing a woman and wounding 13 people," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Earlier in the day, media reports said that seven people were killed in separate shooting and bomb attacks in Baghdad.

    Gunmen in two cars opened fire at shops in a main market of Baiyaa neighborhood in southern the capital, killing three shopkeepers and wounding a pedestrian, the police said.

    In another incident, gunmen opened fire at the convoy of Habib Abdul Hussein al-Shemmary, a director general in the Education Ministry, in Zaiyouna neighborhood in eastern Baghdad.

    The official escaped unhurt, but two of his bodyguards were killed, local police said.

    Also on Sunday, a roadside bomb missed passing police patrols on a highway near the University of Technology in eastern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding another.