Baghdad, April 23 (IANS): At least 10 people were killed and 35 wounded in two bomb blasts in central Iraq on Wednesday, a police source said.

A suicide bomber blew himself up near a bus stop in the city of Samarra, about 120 km north of Baghdad, leaving at least eight people killed and 17 others wounded, according to a Xinhua report.

The source said that the victims were pilgrims at the shrine of Imam Ali al-Hadi.

Earlier, a booby-trapped car detonated near a restaurant in the Talbiyah district in eastern Baghdad, leaving two people dead and 18 wounded, the source added.

Iraq has been witnessing some of the worst violence in many years. Terrorism-related violence has killed 5,576 civilians and injured 11,666 in Iraq this year, according to a UN report.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group had taken control of large territories in the country and in June last year, had declared a “caliphate” in the areas it controls in Iraq and the neighbouring Syria under its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.