Eight people were killed and 15 others were wounded when two car bombs exploded in central Karbala, Iraq on Monday, police said. And, a government employee was killed in a blast in Baghdad, according to authorities.

The first car bomb exploded outside a restaurant frequently visited by pilgrims in the Baladiyat commercial area in central Karbala, killing six civilians wounding 10 others.

Ten minutes later, a second car bomb exploded only 109 yards away from the site of the first blast, killing two and wounding five others, police said.

A reporter for a local television station was among the wounded.

Karbala is a predominately Shiite city located about 68 miles south of Baghdad.

In a separate incident, an employee of Iraq's Ministry of Finance was killed when a bomb attached to his car exploded in Abu Dshir, a Shiite
neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad Monday morning, authorities said.

– CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.