BAGHDAD — Two car bombs went off Sunday in the Iraqi city of Basra, killing nine and wounding 24 in a rare attack in the Shiite-dominated south of the country. All nine deaths resulted from a blast near an outdoor market, said Ali Ghanim, the head of the security committee in the Basra provincial council. He said 19 were wounded in that explosion. Fifteen minutes earlier, five people were wounded when another car bomb went off near a parking lot near the Tax Department in the port city's downtown, said Ghanim. Oil-rich Basra is 550 km southeast of Baghdad. — AP
