Police said a car bomb struck a restaurant in the town of Jbala just south of the capital early Tuesday, killing two people and wounding seven others.

They say also that gunmen shot dead two people in Dora, a neighborhood in Baghdad's south.

Meanwhile, four bodies with gunshot wounds in the back were found in different places in the capital, they say. Dead bodies left in the street were a common find during the widespread sectarian violence that engulfed the country several years ago.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.