In Iraq, 40 people were killed and more than 80 others injured in four bomb blasts in a neighbourhoods in Baghdad on Thursday evening. Reports quoting Iraqi officials said that 34 people killed and 80 others injured when first three bombs went off in quick succession in a south western Baghdad neighbourhood. One targeted a Shiite mosque, another exploded just outside a popular market, while the third went off inside the market where people were doing their evening shopping. About an hour later, a parked car bomb targeting a police patrol killed six people, including one policeman and five bystanders in a different neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad. In a separate attack, an American civilian aid specialist working to improve education in Iraq was also killed.