The first explosion was a car bombing attack that took place near the crowded identity-card office Sunday morning. The second blast took place when a bomber blew himself up after people gathered to help the victims of the first bombing, a Press TV correspondent said.

Karbala is a major holy city and a pilgrimage center located 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the capital Baghdad.

On Thursday a suicide bomber killed four pilgrims and wounded 17 as they made their way into Karbala, Reuters reported. On Aug.15, a booby-trapped car exploded near the police headquarters of Hindiya district, 15 miles east of Karbala, killing three and injuring 42. On July 15, as thousands of visitors descended on Karbala to mark the birthday of a prominent Shiite imam, more than 100 people were killed or injured by three bombs positioned in different areas of the city.

Sunday’s attacks were executed by Afl-Qaeda, which seeks to prove that Iraqi security forces cannot maintain order in advance of the Dec. 31 deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal, said Ganim al-Karbalie, spokesman for the Karbala provincial council.

While overall violence has decreased and no U.S. service member has been killed in hostile action in Iraq since July, small-scale insurgent attacks occur almost daily in the form of sticky bombs and assassinations. The casualties are usually Iraqi civilians, security forces and government officials.

Within the past week, an official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was shot and killed in western Baghdad by gunmen wielding pistols with silencers, Iraqi police partly foiled an insurgent assault on a provincial compound in Ramadi, and a booby-trapped car exploded near a Shiite mosque in Babil province, killing five and injuring 19 policemen and civilians.