Bombs kill eight in Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed on Tuesday in a series of car bombs targeting morning commuters in Baghdads government district and churches in northern Iraq, police said.
In Baghdad, three car bombs hit central Baghdad, where morning traffic was at a standstill as government workers made their way to offices in and around the heavily fortified Green Zone.
Police said the attacks killed four people and wounded 15 others, but Baghdad security spokesman Maj-Gen Qassim al-Moussawi said no one had been killed and only four wounded. One of the bombs went off in a car park near the Iranian embassy, another near the Foreign Ministry and a third close to a popular restaurant. The blasts set nearby cars ablaze. In the northern city of Mosul, a series of car bombs killed four people and wounded 40 others.
The initial bomb went off outside an Assyrian church in western Mosul, and the second detonated less than 10 minutes later as people gathered at the initial blast site.
Across the city, a bomb exploded near another church, damaging the churchs gates. No one was wounded.
I heard a powerful blast, which shattered our windows and scattered the furniture, the sofa, and the television. I ran outside with my family and we saw that the explosion had totally destroyed the churchs outer wall, said Kadhim Hamid, who lives across the street from one of the churches.