Seven people were killed and 21 others wounded by a car bomb just outside Baghdad on Friday evening, a security official said.
The bomb exploded in the town of Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad, at around 6:00 pm (2030 hrs IST) in a popular market as people were shopping for food to break the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The town lies within a confessionally mixed region known as the Triangle of Death because of the frequency of insurgent attacks during the worst of Iraq's insurgency in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion.
The number of violent deaths in Iraq hit a 13-month high in August, raising fresh concerns about stability after the government admitted that security is worsening.
Government statistics showed that 456 people -- 393 civilians, 48 police and 15 Iraqi soldiers -- were killed. That was the highest monthly toll since July 2008, when 465 died.