Two bombs exploded minutes apart near a central Baghdad square yesterday, killing at least seven people, officials said.
The US military said four US Marines died in separate explosions in western Iraq.
The first bomb was in a plastic bag placed near a CD vendor's stand close to the capital's Tahrir Square by a man who fled seconds before the 9:55am explosion, which killed at least three people, said police Captain Mohammed Abdul Ghani.
Abdel Ghani said he was among several policemen who went to the scene of the first blast, 10 minutes after which he witnessed a second bomb hidden in a drain explode, killing four more people including one policeman.
"The vendors were apparently the target of the first explosion because they sell pornographic CDs, while the second was aimed at a police patrol," said Lieutenant Mohammed Khayoun.
A witness said the first blast occurred near a crowd of people watching a film on the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a 7th century Shiite saint who millions of Iraqis mourn during the feast of Ashoura.
"I was standing near the vendor who was targeted. He had a television set showing a film on the martyrdom of Imam Hussein and then the explosion happened," said Ali Abdul Mohsen Karim, 25, who ran a stand selling leather jackets.
"I saw two people dead and ran and hid in one of the stores. Then the other explosion took place," he said.
Officials at two hospitals where the casualties were taken confirmed that seven people were killed and at least 20 wounded in both bombings.
The Ashoura commemorations reach their height tomorrow when hundreds of thousands of Shiites are expected to take part in self-flagellation processions across the country in bloody shows of grief to remember Hussein's death.
Iraqi security forces are on high alert to prevent a repeat of past Ashoura ceremonies where Sunni Arab extremist suicide attackers detonated explosions targeting Shiite worshippers, killing more than 230 people in Baghdad and the holy southern city of Karbala.
Much of the momentum driving Iraq's raging violence comes from a campaign of sectarian-related attacks launched by armed Shiites and Sunni Arabs.
Two more bombings killed four US Marines in western Iraq's volatile Anbar province, the military announced yesterday.
Three Marines assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit died in a bombing on Monday in Hit, 140km west of Baghdad, according to a statement. The victims had operated in Anbar province since mid-December with an Iraqi army battalion.
Another Marine, attached to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, died from wounds caused by a bomb blast on Sunday in a location within Anbar, which includes the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.
The latest deaths take the number of US military personnel killed to at least 2,257 since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an AP count.
The blasts highlight the constant danger posed by homemade bombs across Iraq.
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