By Xinhua,
Baghdad : Four Iraqi children were killed on Saturday by a bomb explosion in the town of Iskandriyah, south of Baghdad, a local police source said.
The incident occurred before midday as children less than eight years old were playing football in a popular playing field near their houses in the town, some 50 km south of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The powerful blast resulted in the killing of four children and in the damaging of several nearby houses, the source said, adding that an explosive ordnance disposal team rushed to the scene and had started a search operation seeking for more bombs.
The incident came a day after two Iraqi children and their mother were killed by a bomb explosion was hidden in a radio apparatus in the town of Balad Ruz, in the Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.
Violence has dramatically dropped in the Iraqi cities, hitting a four-year low, but the U.S. military warned recently that security remains fragile and the gain is reversible.