A car bomb went off in the holy Shiite city of Karbala in central Iraq on Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 38 others, an Interior Ministry source said.

Iraqi soldiers investigate near a damaged bus after a bomb attack occurred in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad November 8, 2010. A car bomb went off in the holy Shiite city of Karbala in central Iraq on Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 38 others, an Interior Ministry source said. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

A booby-trapped car detonated in the morning at the eastern entrance of Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad, where dozens of vehicles were lining up for security checks outside the city, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

There were Iranian pilgrims in the area but there was no immediate report about any casualty among them, the source said.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranian pilgrims flock to Iraq to visit holy Shiite shrines since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime and set up Shiite-led government.

Violence and sporadic high-profile attacks are still common in Iraqi cities as part of recent deterioration in security which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country after violence-torn Iraq held parliamentary elections eight months ago.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet