Explosions rocked a busy market in Iraq's capital, resulting in a large number of casualties, police said [Reuters]

At least eight people were killed when three bomb blasts rocked a busy market in Iraq's capital where people were shopping for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.

The Iraqi police said the blasts occurred in Shurja, an important commercial district in central Baghdad where shop owners and vendors sell clothes, electronics, textiles, food and other goods.

"I can see fire and black smoke rising and a large number of fire engines, ambulances and police patrols rushing to the market," a Reuters news agency witness close to Shurja market said.

"The reason behind the fire was sabotage. The perpetrators used gasoline to set ablaze the market," Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Baghdad security operations, said.

Iraqi forces are preparing to take full responsibility for security by year-end when all US troops pull out of the country, nearly nine years after the US-led invasion.

Military leaders have expressed concerns that armed groups might ramp up attacks as the 33,000 US troops left in Iraq pack up to leave.

Although violence has dropped since the peak of sectarian fighting in 2006-7, bombings and killings occur on a daily basis and Sunni armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and Shia armed groups remain capable of carrying out lethal attacks.

The number of civilians killed in violence in Iraq climbed sharply in October following a string of suicide and roadside bombings in Baghdad.

Attacks have also increased against Iraq's army and police. The number of people killed in October was the highest this year.

US President Barack Obama said on October 21 that all of his country's forces would leave Iraq by the year-end in accordance with a 2008 security pact.

Iraqis examine the wreckage of vehicles destroyed in Monday's car bombing in Kirkuk on Monday [Reuters]

Scores of people have been killed in attacks in towns and cities across Iraq, including at least 34 in a twin bombing in the central city of Kut.

Sixty-five people were also wounded in car bomb and roadside bomb blasts in the city, while deadly bombings and attacks also occurred in Diyala province and in the cities of Najaf, Kerbala and Tikrit, according to security sources.

A security official in Kut said the explosions occurred at 08:00am (0500 GMT) in a crowded area in the centre of the city, 160 kilometres south of Baghdad.

"I was on my way to my shop in the market and sudden I felt myself being thrown to the ground," said 26-year-old Saadun Muftin, speaking from the city's Karama hospital.

"After that I found myself in the hospital with wounds all over my body."

Another shopkeeper, Mohammed Jassim, described "smoke everywhere" in the square where the blasts took place.

The AFP news agency said women and children were among the casualties, quoting a doctor at a local hospital.

Nine people were also killed and 19 others injured in a double car bombing in the southern city of Najaf, according to a police source.

And at least eight people were killed and 14 wounded when a suicide car bomber attacked a municipality building in the Iraqi province of Diyala, Reuters news agency reported, quoting two police sources on Monday.

The attack happened in Khan Bani Saad, about 30 kilometres northeast of Baghdad.

After the blast, local authorities in Baqouba, the main city in Diyala, ordered the evacuation of the provincial government building after receiving intelligence that it might also be targeted, police sources said.

Bombings took place across Iraq on Monday.

Police sources confirmed to Reuters news agency that at least one civilian was killed and nine others were wounded in two separate blasts in the northern city of Kirkuk on Monday.

The first blast was caused by a car bomb, targeting Iraqi police patrol in the area, wounding six people, including four policemen.

While the second blast was caused by a motorcycle bomb, targeting a minibus in Domeez area of southern Kirkuk city, killing one civilian and wounding three others.

Two suicide bombers attacked an Iraqi counter-terrorism unit in Tikrit, 150 kms north of Baghdad, killing at least two policemen and wounding six in a failed attempt to free al-Qaeda prisoners, a police official told Reuters news agency.

"They managed to enter wearing police uniforms and using fake IDs, passing three checkpoints," said a security official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

One attacker detonated his suicide vest, hoping to kill a high-ranking counter-terrorism officer and the other was shot dead during the attack, said Captain Jassim al-Jibouri, an officer with the Tikrit counter-terrorism unit.

According to Al Jazeera's sources, another explosion hit Kerbala province, targeting a police station, killing at least three people.

The attacks come less than two weeks after Iraqi leaders said they would hold talks with the US over a security training mission to last beyond 2011, when all 47,000 American soldiers must withdraw under the terms of a bilateral security pact.

Violence in Iraq has declined from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 259 Iraqis were killed in attacks in July, the second-highest figure for 2011.

The US says it will consider keeping some of its troops in Iraq but wants legal immunity for its soldiers [EPA]

Iraq's political leaders have given the go-ahead for negotiations on allowing some US troops to stay in the country, hours after the US military chief urged Iraq to come to a "quick decision" on the controversial issue.

Leaders from Iraq's major parties agreed on Tuesday to allow Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, to negotiate with the United States over whether US troops should stay to train Iraqi forces after the December 31 deadline for their departure.

"The leaders agreed to authorise the Iraqi government to start the talks with the United States that are limited to training issues," the parties said in a joint statement.

Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said, "After weeks of wrangling and lots of US pressure it appears to be a breakthrough."

"After a five hour meeting in presidential compound here in Baghdad there was an announcement that a deal has been reached that presence of US military trainers would be raised in parliament," she said.

Tough questions remain

The agreement edges Iraq a step closer to deciding if some US soldiers will remain, but a final deal is distant, as tough questions remain on whether trainers would be civilian contractors or active US troops.

There is also a disagreement over the issue of granting legal immunity to US troops.

A US embassy official told the Reuters news agency that they were reviewing the decision.

Admiral Mike Mullen, the US military chief, had said on Tuesday that Iraq must decide as soon as possible whether it wants US troops to stay in the country.

Mullen, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said that US troops must be given immunity from prosecution as part of any agreement to keep them in Iraq and that this protection must be approved by the country's parliament.

Issue of immunity

Any agreement would still need to be approved by Iraq's parliament, where some of Maliki's allies have rejected any continued presence of US troops in Iraq.

The issue is putting pressure on the fragile multi-sectarian alliance of Sunni, Shia and Kurdish blocs and risks upsetting Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Shia militia once fought US troops but now is an ally of Maliki.

Sadr representatives refused to vote to approve the talks on training, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said after the meeting of Iraq's political leaders on Tuesday.

Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the National Alliance Shia parliamentary bloc and the parliamentary committee of security and defence, said it was too early to decide on the issue of immunity.

"Political leaders agreed that there was need for trainers, a move they have been resisting for some time. The move was also bitterly opposed by one of the allies of al-Maliki, the Sadrists," our correspondent said.

"Their representatives walked out of the meeting leaving what it appeared to be an important political reconciliation between Maliki and his closest rival Ayad Allawi," she said.

"Other elements of the plan appear to be that Allawi's party will get to nominate a defence and interior minister. Allawi may negotiate coming back into the government as head of powerful new security council.

"All these details of course are to be worked out, but all in all, an extremely significant first step."

More than eight years after the US-led invasion that toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein, the remaining 46,000 US troops in Iraq are scheduled to leave at the end of this year under a 2008 security deal.

Violence in Iraq has eased sharply from the heights of sectarian killings in 2006 and 2007, but daily attacks, bombings and killings still occur.

Gunmen often target local government and security forces to try to show authorities cannot provide security as US troops prepare to leave at the end of year.

Maliki has said repeatedly Iraqi army and police can manage internal threats, but Iraqi officers acknowledge gaps in their capabilities, especially in air and naval defence of their frontiers and in intelligence gathering.