Four bombs exploded in Baghdad's Shorjah market on Sunday, killing at least one person and wounding 29 on the first day of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, security officials said.

The bombs exploded at about 1:00 pm (1000 GMT), setting fire to part of the market, interior and defence ministry officials said, giving a final casualty toll of one dead and 29 wounded.

The Shorjah market in the heart of the capital is the main market in Iraq, and is more than 700 years old, dating to the Abbasid period.

Baghdad operations command had announced additional security measures around mosques, parks and other public areas to guard them during the Eid al-Adha feast.

Some 32,000 security forces members were also deployed in the central Shiite shrine city of Najaf for Eid al-Adha, security sources in the province said.

Violence has declined nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 258 people were killed in October, according to official figures.

Five killed in Iraq attacks
Baghdad (AFP) Nov 5, 2011 - Bomb and gun attacks in Iraq, including four bombs at the home of an anti-Qaeda militia leader, killed five people and wounded 13 others on Saturday, security officials said.

The bomb blasts struck the home of Yassin Issa Daud, a leader of Sahwa (Awakening) militia in Taji, north of Baghdad, about 6:30 am (0330 GMT), Taji police Captain Ahmed Fahad said.

The explosions killed three people, including Daud's brother and wife, and wounded six other people, Fahad said, adding that Daud was not home at the time.

Officials from the interior and defence ministries put the toll at four killed and 11 wounded.

"Four people were killed and 11 others wounded by the explosion of four roadside bombs that targeted the house of a Sahwa leader in Taji," the interior ministry official said.

The defence ministry official gave the same toll.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber and a car bomb targeted Sahwa militiamen near Baquba, north of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 26, an army officer and a doctor said.

The Sahwa are made up of Sunni tribesmen who joined forces with the US military against Al-Qaeda from late 2006, helping turn the tide of the insurgency.

Amir al-Khuzai, adviser to the prime minister for reconciliation affairs, said the Sahwa once numbered about 87,000, but that more than 40,000 of them are still awaiting promised public sector jobs.

Also on Saturday, border police Brigadier General Mohammed Jalil Mansur was shot dead with a silenced weapon while driving near Al-Shaab football stadium in eastern Baghdad, the interior ministry official said.

A magnetic sticky bomb on a minibus in the Sadr City area in the capital's north killed one person and wounded five others, according to the official.

And another sticky bomb on a car wounded two other people in north Baghdad.

Violence has declined nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 258 people were killed in October, according to official figures.