BAQUBA: A six-year-old girl was killed and eight other people wounded in a series of bomb attacks Wednesday in the Iraqi city of Baquba, security and hospital officials said.

Five bombs exploded at short intervals in different parts of the city, starting from 0345 GMT, said an official at the operations command centre in Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad.

One of them, which targeted the house of a local leader, killed a six-year-old girl, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Eight other people, including three police officers and five civilians, were wounded, he added.

The first blast struck a car in the city centre, with the others targeting the house of a police officer, another local leader's residence, the house of an anti-Qaeda militiamen from the Sahwa group, and a checkpoint.

Doctor Firas al-Dulaimi, at Baquba's general hospital, confirmed the toll from the bombings.

Violence in Iraq is down from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 187 people died in violence in November, according to official figures.

A British NGO said on Monday that around 162,000 people, almost 80 per cent of them civilians, were killed in Iraq from the start of the 2003 US-led invasion up to last month's withdrawal of American forces.