BAGHDAD, Jan. 23 (Saba) -- Five people were killed and 22 others were wounded in four car bomb attacks in and near Baghdad on Sunday, an Interior Ministry source said.

A booby-trapped car parked near Dyana Hotel on Abu Nawas Street in central Baghdad detonated and killed a civilian and wounded six others, the source told , Xinhua News Agency.

In a separate incident, another car bomb went off in al-Taji area, some 15 km north of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four, the source said.

A third car bomb ripped through al-Zeyout Intersection in Baghdad's central district of Karrada, wounding four people, the source added.

Earlier in the day, the source said that a policeman and a civilian were killed and eight people wounded in the morning when a car bomb exploded near a police patrol in al-E'ilam neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad.

In his earlier report, the source said that the blast was by a roadside bomb, but later he changed his story to a car bomb explosion.

Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks continue in the Iraqi cities despite the gradual decrease of violence over the last three years.

Saba