Baghdad - Three explosions killed at least three people and wounded 40 in Iraq's Karbala on Wednesday, security and health officials said, in a rare attack in one of the holiest cities for Shi'a Muslims.

Despite the decline in violence over the last 18 months, Iraq remains one of the world's most dangerous places, with car bombs, shootings and other attacks daily.

A police source said three people were killed and 40 injured in the attacks in Karbala, 80km south-west of the Iraqi capital. But other sources put the death toll as high as 12 or as low as one.

In a separate incident, gunmen killed at least seven people and wounded 10 in a robbery of gold merchants in a market in north-western Baghdad.
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