KIRKUK: Two bombings in a livestock market in northern Iraq on Friday killed eight people, police and a doctor said.

The blasts in Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad, also wounded 25 people.

Militants in Iraq often target places where crowds of people gather, including markets, cafes and mosques, in an effort to cause maximum casualties.

Friday's attacks came a day after three suicide bombers targeted Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad and south of the capital, killing at least 36 people, as militants shot dead a family of five west of the city.

Violence in Iraq has surged this year to levels not seen since 2008, when it was just emerging from a brutal sectarian conflict.

More people were killed in the first eight days of this month than in all of December last year.

And more than 6,600 people have been killed since the beginning of 2013, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.