Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Three Iraqi civilians were killed and five others wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in a southeastern Baghdad suburb on Sunday, an Interior Ministry source said.

    The incident took place in the Jesr Diyala suburb just east of Baghdad when a roadside bomb went off near a civilian vehicle carrying passengers, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    The blast badly damaged the car, killing three passengers and injuring five others aboard, the source said.

    In an earlier incident in the capital, three people and a policeman were killed and 15 people, including two policemen, were wounded when two roadside bombs exploded coordinately in the Nahdha area in downtown Baghdad.

    The blasts also damaged several nearby shops and civilian cars in area where one of most crowded parking-lots in the capital located, he said.

    Violence has dropped to a four-year low in Iraq, while sporadic roadside bombs, car bombings and suicide attacks are still haunting the Iraqis.