BAGHDAD -- Eight people were killed and 14 were injured Wednesday in attacks on Baghdad's Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Shula, police said.

The violence started around noon when three mortar rounds hit the Jawadin marketplace in the center of Shula, wounding five civilians. Minutes later, gunmen attacked three goldsmiths, killing the store owners and five other people and robbing the stores. As they left, the gunmen threw grenades that injured nine more people.

Gen. Mohammed al Askari, the Iraqi defense ministry spokesman, said he considered the incident a normal one that could happen in any country.

``I cannot accuse anyone of the incident in Shula,'' he said. ``It is too early. The attack does not have any political motives. It's clear that the incident is only a robbery.''

Two more attacks elsewhere in Baghdad targeted civilians.

In the majority Sunni neighborhood of Athemiyah, gunmen planted a bomb under the car of Abdul Sattar Abdul Jabbar, the imam of the Abu Hanifa mosque. Abdul Jabber and his driver survived the explosion early Wednesday morning, but police said they were seriously wounded.

Three other civilians were injured by a bomb in an intersection in downtown Baghdad.

The wave of attacks wasn't confined to the capital. Three explosions killed at least one civilian and injured 40 south of Baghdad in Karbala province, Askari said.

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