At least 17 killed in Iraq blasts

A car bomb went off outside a hospital in a Shi'ite stronghold of Baghdad on Saturday, killing 10 people and injuring at least 22 others, Iraqi police said. The police said the explosion took place outside the Sadrayn Hospital, the main hospital in Sadr City.

According to Reuters, police also said four people had been killed and 20 wounded in a car bomb attack in the Shi'ite city of Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad.

In northern Iraq, a car went off about 7 a.m. after the driver parked it near Iraqis looking for work in the center of Tuz Khormato, 130 miles north of Baghdad. The driver and two workers were killed and 11 others injured in the attack, police Col. Abbas Mohammed Amin said.

There has been a surge of bombings in Shi'ite areas across Iraq in the past week that have killed 400 people.