Death toll rose to 15 when some eight mortar rounds struck a residential area in southern Baghdadon Sunday, an Interior Ministry source said.

"Several mortar rounds landed on the Abu Dshier neighborhood at about 5:30 PM (14:30 GMT), now the death toll rose to 15 with 45 others wounded," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Reports earlier said six Iraqis were killed and 38 others wounded.

The attack probably were targeting a US military base close to the neighborhood, the source said.

In another case on Sunday, three civilians were wounded when a mortar round landed on their house in the Shula neighborhood in northern Baghdad.

The mortar attacks were one of the latest bloodsheds after a holy Shiite shrine was bombed on Wednesday in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra.

Reports from Iraq's Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, said that gunmen opened fire at a crowd of teenage boys in a football game on Sunday in the city, killing two and injuring six others.

"Unknown armed men in a car opened fire at about 5:30 PM (14:30 GMT) on a crowd of boys playing football in the al-Mafraqarea in Baquba," the Joint Coordination Center of Diyala confirmed in a statement obtained by Xinhua.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2006)