A spate of car bombs in Shiite areas of Iraq, including two blasts minutes apart at a popular bird market, killed at least 29 people on Friday, the latest in a spike in violence amid a political crisis.

Eight people including a policeman were killed and 30 others were wounded on Friday in a Taliban suicide car bomb attack on police headquarters in a city in eastern Afghanistan, police said.

Two suicide bombers detonated vehicles packed with explosives on the outskirts of the holy Shiite shrine city of Karbala on Thursday killing at least 45 people, a top official said.