BAGHDAD, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least eight Iraqis were killed and 40 others injured in two bomb explosions in Baghdad on Thursday, an Interior Ministry source said.

    An explosive charge went off at the sunset at a funeral tent in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 32 others, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Meanwhile, a roadside bomb hit a group of Shiite pilgrims in Zaafaraniyah neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad, killing three pilgrims and wounding eight others, the source said.

    The pilgrims were traveling on foot to the holy Shiite city of Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad, to celebrate the Ashura religious ritual, the source added.

    Insurgents frequently attack Shiite pilgrims who gather to perform their communal rituals, including Ashura, the holiest day on the Shiite Islamic calendar. It is a commemoration of the death in 680 AD of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

    Sporadic attacks continue in Iraq as part of recent security deterioration which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country ahead of the country's national polls next year.