UPDATE 1-Bus bombing kills 8 people near Iraqi city of Kerbala

A bus bombing killed at least eight people and wounded another six on Friday near Iraq's holy city of Kerbala, south of Baghdad, local police said.

An explosive device planted on the bus detonated at a northern entrance to the city, setting fire to the vehicle, two police spokesmen in the area said. They said the wounded were rushed to the hospital.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. Such attacks in the mostly Shi'ite Muslim south of Iraq have been rare in recent years, especially after the territorial defeat of Islamic State in Iraq in 2017 and the routing of its al Qaeda predecessors in the mid-2000s.

Islamic State insurgents have continued to carry out regular attacks mostly against security forces in the north of the country, however.

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